Wyman/Clifford/Saxton

EARLY ENGLISH BACKGROUND The surname Wyman is generally acknowledged to be of Germanic (or Scandanavian) origin, from the Anglo-Saxons along the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe River and in ancient Schlesvig. The name wigmund appears to have derived from the old Scandinavian Vimund, from which evolved Wyman or Weyman. In the early history of Vikings in England, the name was confined geographically to the Norfolk and Lincolnshire area. Rarely, at all was it found elsewhere. The first Wyman in England probably arrived between the 4th and 6th centuries A D, after the Roman withdrawal had left the native Britons with little government or defense. The Angles occupied the area along the south shore of the Wash and named it East Anglia. It roughly encompassed the current shires of Norfolk and Suffolk. Meanwhile the Saxons settled south central England, establishing the kingdoms of Essex, Middlesex, Wessex and Sussex; in the Sth century consolidated into the kingdom of Mercia. Both the Angles and Saxons were warrior farmers who brought very few women with them. relying instead on captured native Britons for slaves and wives, thus Celtic and Germanic blood lines were mixed at an early date.

The first king of Mercia was Witlaf (Wihtlaeg). His son and heir was Wymand (Waermund). To impress their subjects, all Analo-Saxon kings claimed to descend from Woden(1) (.Wotan or Odin), the Viking god of War. In 1066, after defeating Saxon Kina Harold at Hastings, the Norman Duke William the Conqueror ordered a land survey and census of all England. The resulting Domesday Book completed in 1086, listed frequent Wymans and Wymonds (the crests on their coats of arms are identical) in many parts of England. Three Hertfordshire parishes (Wymondham, Great and Little Wymondley) are less than 100 miles from the city of Wymondham, Norfolk. Regrettably these fragmentary data are insufficient to establish any continuous line of descent before the sixteenth century. [1]. 'From Woden has descended all our royal family, and that of the Southumbrians, also', (from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle), but before anyone reserves a suite at Buckingham or a seat at Valhalla, bear in mind that it was the custom of subjects to adopt the name of their leader, thus establishing identification via allegiance.