Sir Roger Dent, Kt.

Other Events and Attributes:

• EARL: Y
• Occupation: Sheriff of Newcastle, England

Notes:

Roger Dent and Ann Fenwyck had George, Rawfe, Thomas, William, a second George, Robert, Richard and Katherine. Son William had his pedigree recorded at the Visitation of Yorkshire in 1561. He was sheriff of Newcastle and Mayor in 1562. Earlier in 1548 he had purchased considerable monastic possessions in Newcastle Bourbe and other places. It is not known which child of Roger and Ann was the father of the last known ancestor of the American immigrants.

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Subject: Roger Dent & Anne Fenwycke
Date: Sun, 7 Sep 2003 18:00:10 +0100
From: "Mary Hurley"
To:
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Dear John:
May I say how much I admire all the work you have done on recording the huge Dent family connection. However, being a bit of a stickler for accuracy, I have wondered where Roger Dent and Anne Fenwycke came from, no one has noted any sources for their names. I have therefore been to York, and have searched the records in an attempt to verify this descent. As the early records are written in Latin, and I am no scholar I have latterly employed a researcher, to whom I submitted various descendant lists from the USA which I have downloaded together with the College of Heralds Visitation of Cambridge.
I have found John's baptism in Ormsby (1641) and Thomas' in Guisborough (1631), Thomas being the son of Peter, and John of George.
I quote the following letter from Emma Dobson, Archive Assisstant at the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, University of York.
"I have studied the information provided with your letter and as a result decided to check the IGI. Whilst I was unable to locate an entry for the marriage of Roger Dent and Anne Fenwycke I did manage to find an entry for their son William Dent which in turn linked back to Roger and Anne as his parents. William's siblings are also listed. The dates of all the entries are listed as "about...date". This usually indicates that precise information has yet to be located but that this is what the researcher would have expected to find. Also, the source of this information is not given. This would support the idea that the information has been deduced rather than discovered!
We checked the Pedigree lists for North Yorkshire for the Dent family but without success. We also checked the manorial records for information pertaining to Ormsby but again without success."
John, I wonder if the information was taken from an old tomb in the church at Dent? Which would mean that there is no definite connection between Roger and his family, and John and Thomas. The parish records for Dent (which is no longer in Yorkshire, but now in Cumbria), do not appear to go back to the fifteenth century.
I will very much appreciate your comments. Wishful thinking tends to lead one to attach ancestors where they do not belong.
Mary
PS: I still need to verify the parentage of John Dent who married Margaret Evans; was it George, died 1757, m. Elizabeth Harrison?

Roger married Anne Fenwycke about 1500. Anne (daughter of Sir Roger Fenwycke,, Kt. and Lady Agnes De Harbottle) was born about 1475 in Wallington, Northumberland, England; died in 1550. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. William Dent was born about 1501 in Ormesby, North Riding, Yorkshire, England.
2. George Dent was born in 1502.
3. Rawfe Dent was born in 1504.
4. Thomas Dent was born in 1506.
5. George Dent
6. Robert Dent was born in 1510.
7. Richard Dent was born in 1512.
8. Kathrine Dent was born in 1514.

Notes:

The origin of this family name is English. The name denotes one who came from Dent (hills) in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

Armes: Or, on a blend, sable three lozenges erminois. (See Dent gravestone in St. Andrews Episcopal cemetery, St. Mary’s County.)

The proving of English parentage of American settlers is most difficult and through the unscrupulousness of early as well as later genealogists many flagrant errors have been made. Most of what has been written seems to bear some credence. There is a market town on the bends of the river Dee in West Riding, Yorkshire named Dent. It is generally believed that the family derived its name from the town.
About 1318 Willielmus filius Roberti de Dent deeded land in the village of Wertherny (Wertherby?) for the use of the knights Templar. It later reverted to the Dent family and according to the Historical and Archeological Journal of Yorkshire it was still held by descendants in 1889. A list of freemen of Yorkshire in 1365 records the name of Willielmus de Dent, pacemaker. In 1365 Earle de Dent was granted the armes of the family at Yorkshire.
In addition it can be stated that the following has been proved with absolute certainty:
Peter Dent, naturalist and professor of Cambridge University recorded in 1684 the background of his family in Cambridgeshire Pedigrees in the Heralds Collage of London, England.
William Fenwick (a contemporary of King Henry VII) married Joane Musgrave who was co-heiress with her brother Thomas, Lord of Ryall and Heaton. They had at least one son, Sir John Fenwyke.

Roger + Jane. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]