Jenner
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Jenner Surname Genealogy
The root of Jenner was the French engigneor or engineer. At the time of the Norman Conquest the name described the men who dug the military siege trenches and worked the catapults and siege machines.
Most Jenners were to be found in southeast England in East Sussex and across the border into Kent. The story goes that there were "engineers" who had come over with William the Conqueror but had become disgruntled for their lack of reward. So they refused to integrate into the newly conquered country and stayed in the East Sussex area where they had landed.
England. Jenner has been a relatively common name in East Sussex. The name was to be found in coastal towns such as Hastings and Brighton and in wealden villages such as Withyham, Worth, Ticehurst, and Wadhurst. Thomas Jenner from Mayfield was a judge who rose to become Baron of the Exchequer and a Justice of the Common Pleas in the 1680's. Two Jenner brothers from Rotherfield founded the Jenner brewery in London. A Jenner family originally from Bede in East Sussex were cutlers in Cranbrook in Kent in the 1600's. Other Jenners were stone cutters in the quarries near Tunbridge Wells.
But the most famous Jenner was not from this part of England. Edward Jenner was born in Berkeley, Gloucestershire in 1749, the son of the local vicar, and he spent most of his career as a doctor in his native town. In 1796 he carried out his now famous experiment on eight-year-old James Phipps. He was testing the theory, drawn from the folklore of the countryside, that milkmaids who suffered the mild disease of cowpox never contracted smallpox, one of the greatest killers of the period. Jenner subsequently proved that Phipps, after having been inoculated with cowpox, would be immune to smallpox.
There had been an earlier outbreak of smallpox in the Dorset village of Yetminster where, curiously, a cluster of Jenners (originally Ginners) was to be found. This village was proficient in the leather and glove trade and Henry Jenner and his son Harry brought that skill with them when they emigrated to America in 1864.
America. The Jenners in America today number less than a thousand. They may be either of English or German origin. Henry Jenner came from Sussex in the 1840's and settled in upstate New York. Another Jenner family traces its roots back to Wuerttenberg in Germany. Jenner here may have come from the South German Janner after Januarius (the first month of the year).
The Jenner family of Crawford county, Indiana came originally from Kentucky and numbered in its midst William Jenner, the Indiana Senator of the 1950's.
Australia. Isaac Jenner from Sussex settled in Brisbane, Queensland in the 1880's. He was a landscape painter. Although his contribution to art in Brisbane was considerable, his claim to be the founder of art in the colony was somewhat exaggerated.
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Edward Jenner was the celebrated English scientist credited in the early 19th century with devising a vaccine for smallpox.
Charles Jenner who had moved from the south to Edinburgh started a drapery store on Princes Street in the 1830's. Now known as Jenners, it is probably the best known of Edinburgh's shops.
Sir William Jenner from Chatham in Kent was the physician who discovered the difference between typhus and typhoid. He was also Queen Victoria's doctor.
Henry Jenner, born in St. Columb Major in Cornwall, was a Celtic scholar who published the Cornish language handbook in 1904 which helped in its revival as a language.
Bruce Jenner was the American track athlete who won the 1976 Olypmpic decathlon Gold Medal.
Select Jenners Today
The root of Jenner was the French engigneor or engineer. At the time of the Norman Conquest the name described the men who dug the military siege trenches and worked the catapults and siege machines.
Most Jenners were to be found in southeast England in East Sussex and across the border into Kent. The story goes that there were "engineers" who had come over with William the Conqueror but had become disgruntled for their lack of reward. So they refused to integrate into the newly conquered country and stayed in the East Sussex area where they had landed.
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Jenner
Resources on
The
Internet
- The Jenner Museum. The family tree of Edward Jenner.
- Pedigree of George Jenner. Jenners from Withyham in Sussex.
England. Jenner has been a relatively common name in East Sussex. The name was to be found in coastal towns such as Hastings and Brighton and in wealden villages such as Withyham, Worth, Ticehurst, and Wadhurst. Thomas Jenner from Mayfield was a judge who rose to become Baron of the Exchequer and a Justice of the Common Pleas in the 1680's. Two Jenner brothers from Rotherfield founded the Jenner brewery in London. A Jenner family originally from Bede in East Sussex were cutlers in Cranbrook in Kent in the 1600's. Other Jenners were stone cutters in the quarries near Tunbridge Wells.
But the most famous Jenner was not from this part of England. Edward Jenner was born in Berkeley, Gloucestershire in 1749, the son of the local vicar, and he spent most of his career as a doctor in his native town. In 1796 he carried out his now famous experiment on eight-year-old James Phipps. He was testing the theory, drawn from the folklore of the countryside, that milkmaids who suffered the mild disease of cowpox never contracted smallpox, one of the greatest killers of the period. Jenner subsequently proved that Phipps, after having been inoculated with cowpox, would be immune to smallpox.
There had been an earlier outbreak of smallpox in the Dorset village of Yetminster where, curiously, a cluster of Jenners (originally Ginners) was to be found. This village was proficient in the leather and glove trade and Henry Jenner and his son Harry brought that skill with them when they emigrated to America in 1864.
America. The Jenners in America today number less than a thousand. They may be either of English or German origin. Henry Jenner came from Sussex in the 1840's and settled in upstate New York. Another Jenner family traces its roots back to Wuerttenberg in Germany. Jenner here may have come from the South German Janner after Januarius (the first month of the year).
The Jenner family of Crawford county, Indiana came originally from Kentucky and numbered in its midst William Jenner, the Indiana Senator of the 1950's.
Australia. Isaac Jenner from Sussex settled in Brisbane, Queensland in the 1880's. He was a landscape painter. Although his contribution to art in Brisbane was considerable, his claim to be the founder of art in the colony was somewhat exaggerated.
Select Jenner Names
Edward Jenner was the celebrated English scientist credited in the early 19th century with devising a vaccine for smallpox.
Charles Jenner who had moved from the south to Edinburgh started a drapery store on Princes Street in the 1830's. Now known as Jenners, it is probably the best known of Edinburgh's shops.
Sir William Jenner from Chatham in Kent was the physician who discovered the difference between typhus and typhoid. He was also Queen Victoria's doctor.
Henry Jenner, born in St. Columb Major in Cornwall, was a Celtic scholar who published the Cornish language handbook in 1904 which helped in its revival as a language.
Bruce Jenner was the American track athlete who won the 1976 Olypmpic decathlon Gold Medal.
Select Jenners Today
- 6,000 in the UK (most numerous in Kent)
- 800 in America (most numerous in California).
- 3,000 elsewhere (most numerous in Australia)
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