Doggetts Surname - the Viking History

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Doggett Surname

Of all the ancient surnames of England few have left their mark so vividly on the pages of time as Doggett. Of Norman origin, the history of this family name entwines itself throughout the fabric of the ancient chronicles of England.

The surname Doggett is believed to be of Norman origin, a race commonly but mistakenly assumed to be of French origin. More accurately they were of Viking origin. The Vikings landed in the Orkneys and Northern Scotland about the year 870 A.D., under their King, Stirgund the Stout. Thorfinn Rollo, his decendants, scion of a Viking explorer clans who may well have visited North America, landed in northern France about the year 910 A.D.

The French King, Charles the Simple, after Rollo laid siege to Paris, finally conceded defeat and granted northern France to Rollo. Rollo became the first Duke of Normandy, the territory of the North Men. Rollo married Charles daughter and became a convert to Christianity. Descended from Rollo was Duke William of Normandy who invaded England in 1066 and was victorious over the Saxon King Harold at Hastings in 1066 A.D. William granted his Norman nobles much of the land of England for their assistance at the Battle of Hastings. Those estates which were still held by these families in 1086 were granted in perpetuity, fore ever, hence the name of the census was called the Domesday Book. From amongst these Normans a noble is believed to have been your distant ancestor.

After careful analysis researches found that the first evidence of your surname was found in Norfolk where they were recorded as a family of great antiquity seated at Honing Sebane and Wronger with manors and estates in that shire. They were originally from Doget in Normandy. They flourished in Norfolk for several centuries and acquired additional estates by junior branches of the family in the county of Kent and Buckingham. They intermarried with the distinguished families of Norfolk.

Notable amongst the family at this time as Richard Doggett of Wronger. During the 15th, 16th and 17th century, England, Scotland and Ireland were ravaged by religious and political conflicts as first one element, then another, fought for control. This created the unrest that was to produce a great exodus, either voluntarily, or by banishment, as first on side acquired control, then another. The tyranny assumed the proportions of an inquisition, and many innocent men were either banished to the colonies, imprisoned or hanged, drawn and quartered. Alliances were crucial to survival. Arranged marriages assured families of protection, added to their possessions and estates, and gained them influence in the right quarter. Some family names were almost obliterated, names such as the Percys, the Nivilles and the Fenwicks, once the great clans of the north of England, were reduced to obscurity. Electing loyalty to the wrong side could cause disastrous results to the future of a whole family name.

Manipulation of families known to be loyal to the cause in power was the only way to national survival, there being no standing army. Subjugation of Ireland became the objective of a succession of monarchs. Many families were freely encouraged to migrate to Ireland, or to the colonies. Lands were granted free, or at nominal payments. Some families where rewarded with grants of land, other were banished. In Ireland, settlers became known as the Adventures for Land. One of the conditions of settlement they undertook was to maintain the Protestant faith with their families and among all those who worked for them. There is no evidence that the family name Doggett migrated to Ireland but this does not preclude the possibility of individual migration. But the New World beckoned and migration continued, some went voluntarily from Ireland, but mostly directly from England or Scotland, their home territories.

Some clans and families even moved to the European continent. Kinsmen of the family name Doggett where amongst the many who sailed aboard the armada of small sailing ships, tiny vessels ships known as the White Sails which plied the stormy Atlantic during the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. These overcrowded ships were pestilence ridden, sometimes 30% to 40% of the passenger list never reaching their destination. Were buried at sea. Amongst the settlers which could be considered a kinsman of the surname Doggett, or a variable spelling of that family name was Thomas Doggett who settled in Massachusetts in 1630: John Doggett settled in Salem Massachusetts in 1630; Joseph Doggett landed in America in 1775; The trek from the port of entry was also hazardous and many joined the wagon trains to the prairies or over the Rockies to the west coast. The War of Independence found many loyal to the crown making their way north to Canada about 1790. They became known as the United Empire Loyalists.