Roger de Gardiano

GARDINER-GARDNER FAMILY HISTORY · 31 July 2013 · 0 Comments

Gardiner-Gardner is an Anglo-Saxon name for an Anglo-Saxon tribe. In Bradley’s Dictionary of English and Welsh surnames,” we find that the name is derived from the same roots as Gairden, which is of Gaelic origin, signifying an enclosed or fortified place, the beacon hill; from “gair,” an outcry, an alarm; and “den,” a hill or fortress. The termination “er” gives the name Gair-den-er,” (which means) a warrior, one who bears arms, and the transition to Gardener, Gardiner, Gardner, and other spellings, as found in both ancient and modern records, followed naturally. This does away with the possible derivation from an occupation.

The name recurs frequently in English medieval registers; the earliest recorded having the French definite article masculine “le” much used in medieval English names of French type. Of the earliest of the Gardiner names found in the “One Hundred Rolls,” are Geoffrey le Gardiner, of Oxfordshire, Ralph le Gardiner, of Huntingdonshire, and William le Gardiner, of Lincolnshire, all in the year 1273. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, the Hundred Rolls are a census of England and parts of what are now Wales taken in the late thirteenth century. Often considered an attempt to produce a second Domesday Book, they are named for the hundreds by which most returns were recorded. The Rolls include a survey of royal privileges taken in 1255, and the better known surveys of liberties and land ownership, taken in 1274 - 5 and 1279 - 80, respectively. The two main enquiries were commissioned by Edward I of England to record the adult population for judicial and taxation purposes. They also specify the services due from tenants to lords under the feudal system of the time.)

These names show the very early corruption from the proper French spelling “le Gardinier,” and show that the tribe was already well established in different parts of England. These three men were of the landed gentry, but the name is found in later records among all classes of people. Sometime early n the reign of Edward I, the name William Gardiner appeared in the Testa De Neville, proving that the “le” had occasionally, at least, been dropped at this early date and the surname, as it now appears, with the a slight change of spelling well established.

It is claimed that the Gardiner family was first found in Lancashire and from there emigrated to and settled in many parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland. It is significant that in several American families of the name, not knowingly related to each other, the tradition of ancient Lancashire descent, reaching back to the Barons of Runnymede, is held; although some, notable the descendants of Richard Gardiner who settled in Maryland with the Calvert’s, came directly from Yorkshire, and others trace their lineage from Lancashire through Yorkshire lines.

Several Gardiner-Gardner families in England have been granted armorial bearings, some of them resembling each other in essential features, others in minor details. Burke’s “General Armory,” p 387, describes the Coat of Arms held by Sir Osbern Gardiner, of Wigan, Lancashire, showing that it is identical to the one belonging to the Newport Gardiner family of America, with the exception of the Crest which is lacking in the former. The similarity of these two Coats of Arms indicates the truth of the assertion made by some that the pedigree of the Newport-Narragansett Gardiners can be traced to Sir Osbern Gardiner of Lancashire.

There is a tradition held by some of the descendants of William Gardiner (son of Benoni), son of George of Newport, that our ancestor won his Crest at Acre in 1191, by chopping through the shoulder of a Saracen who was about to kill Richard Coeur de Lion. Hence the Saracen’s head on the Coat of Arms. (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, we learn that Saracen was a term for Muslims widely used in Europe during the later medieval era. The term's meaning evolved during its history. In the early centuries [AD] in Greek and Latin it referred to a people who lived in desert areas in and near the Roman province of Arabia, and who were specifically distinguished from Arabs. In Europe during the Early Medieval era, the term began to be used to describe Arab tribes as well. By the 12th century, Saracen had become synonymous with Muslim in Medieval Latin literature. This expansion of the meaning had begun centuries earlier among the Byzantine Greeks, as evidenced in Byzantine Greek documents from the 8th century. Also, Acre is a city in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay. The city occupies an important location, as it sits on the coast of the Mediterranean, linking the waterways and commercial activity with the Levant [3] Acre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the world. Historically, it was a strategic coastal link to the Levant. In crusader times it was known as St. John d'Acre after the Knights Hospitaller of St John order that had their headquarters there.) It is an established fact that George Gardiner of Newport spelled his name with the “I”, and most of his descendants, who remained In Rhode Island, and many others, retain that correct spelling. Those of the family who removed to Connecticut generally dropped the “I”, probably to distinguish them from the Lion Gardiner family of Gardiner’s Island. (Researched and compiled by Reva F. Hansen and Amelia H. Robertson about 1972; attached to Family Tree by Stan Roberts, 31 July 2013.)