Kenchatt
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Once of the rarer Kingshott name derivations is that of Kenchatt. That it is a derivative is clear from a DNA comparative analysis that has been conducted via the Ancestry website. I had my paternal DNA analysed (see here) and a chap by the name of Philip Kenchatt did too. We were an identical match on the markers identified indicating a common genealogical ancestor within a very few generations. This confirmed my own genealogical research into the family.
So, where did this branch of the family come from? Well, it all comes down to the phonetic way that surnames were recorded.
In the mid-18th century, one of the families in Liss, Hampshire, England, was John Kinget and his wife Mary. They were married at Liss on June 3rd, 1754. John was from the Kingshott ancestral ground-zero village of Fernhurst.
Old postcard of Liss village
John & Mary Kinget went on to have no less than nine different children who were all baptised in Liss. Though John was baptised as Kinget, eight of his children were baptised as Kingshotts with one exception. Their son Robert was baptised Kinchatt on 9th March 1766. Robert was my 2nd cousin 6 times removed. It is his descendants that gradually became the Kenchatt family.
Robert married Maria Clear on 11th December 1786 and himself went on to have ten children, all of whom were baptised. As was often the case, the children were baptised with variations on the theme of Kingshott as a surname. Two were baptised Kenchat, one Kenchet, one Kinchat, four Kingshott, one Kinshott and one Kinchett!
The eldest son, Robert Kenchat, married Elizabeth Ottaway on 11th August 1807 in Lambeth, London. They lived in Epsom, Surrey and raised eight children there, all of whom were the now finalised surname of Kenchatt.
This is Robert Kenchat's marriage entry in the parish register at Lambeth
Descendants of this family include Ralph Kenchatt and Charles Reading Kenchatt, who both gave their lives in the service of their country during World War One.
A four-generation descent of Robert Kinchatt can be seen here.