Wodehouse (surname)

Not to be confused with Woodhouse (surname)

The family coat of arms as shown on a stamp used by John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley (1826–1902); Sable a chevron or goutty de sang between three cinquefoils

The medieval family coat of arms before its augmentation after the Battle of Agincourt: Sable a chevron or between three cinquefoils.

Wodehouse /ˈwʊdhaʊs/ is an English surname and barony. The baronetcy was created in 1611, the barony in 1797. since 1866 held by the Earl of Kimberley; the current Baron Wodehouse being John Wodehouse, 5th Earl of Kimberley (b. 1951).

The name "de Wodehouse" is attested as early as in the 11th century, of one Bertram, of Wodehouse-tower, Yorkshire, who lived at the time of the Norman conquest.^[1] But the modern surname unrelated to this Yorkshire Wodehouse, instead derived from a Wodehouse (in origin a toponym meaning "wood-house"^[2]) in Silfield, Wymondham, Norfolk.

The pedigree of the Wodehouse family of Norfolk is on record beginning with Sir Constantine de Wodehouse who flourished (fl. 1100). His descendant, Bertram de Wodehouse (fl. 1300) acquired large estates in Massingham, Norfolk and Fordham, Cambridgeshire by marriage to Muriel, daughter of Hamo lord Felton. Bertram's eldest son, William de Wodehouse, fought in the Castilian Civil War (War of the Two Peters) as part of the force sent by Edward III, was sheriff of London in 1374. Bertram's second son, Robert de Wodehouse, chaplain to Edward II, was made baron of the exchequer in 1318.

William's great-grandson, Edward de Wodehouse, owned land in Kimberley, Norfolk in 1378. His son, John Wodehouse, built Wodehouse tower in Kimberley. John's eldest son, John Wodehouse, Esq., attended to the person of Henry V in the Battle of Agincourt and for his gallantry in that battle was made steward of Lancaster in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, besides being given a crest of "a Hand, issuing from the Clouds, holding a Club" and the motto frappe forte, replacing the wild man of the family's former crest (which was however retained as supporter), and also added a "drop of blood" (gutte de sang) as a heraldic device to the shield.^[3]

The augmented coat of arms of Wodehouose from this time has been blazoned sable a chevron or, gutte de sang, between three cinquefoils ermine with the crest on a wreath, an arm erect, holding a club in the hand and on a scroll the motto frappe forte^, i. e. "strike strong", and at the bottom Agincourt, supported by two wild men.^[4] The native English term for "wild man", woodwose (from a putative Old English *wude-wāsa "wood-being"), has been transformed to woodhouse by popular etymology due to their appearance as supporters in the Woodhouse coat of arms.

Baronets Wodehouse:

• The baronetcy was created in 1611, for Sir Philip Wodehouse, 1st Baronet
• Sir Thomas Wodehouse, 2nd Baronet
• Sir Armine Wodehouse, 5th Baronet (c. 1714–1777), MP for Norfolk

Barons Wodehouse:

• John Wodehouse, 6th Baronet (1741–1834), was created Baron Wodehouse in 1797.
• John Wodehouse, 2nd Baron Wodehouse (1770–1846), British MP and then peer
• Sir John Wodehouse, 4th Baronet (1669–1754), British MP

Earls of Kimberley:

• in 1866, John Wodehouse, 3rd Baron (1826–1902) was created Earl of Kimberley
• John Wodehouse, 2nd Earl of Kimberley (1848–1932), first member of the Labour Party in the House of Lords
• John Wodehouse, 3rd Earl of Kimberley (1883–1941)
• John Wodehouse, 4th Earl of Kimberley (1924–2002)
• John Wodehouse, 5th Earl of Kimberley (born 1951)

Other descendants of Sir Armine Wodehouse, 5th Baronet:^[5]

• Reverend Philip Wodehouse (1745-1811), son of Sir Armine Wodehouse, 5th Baronet
  • Lt.-Col. Philip Wodehouse (1788-1846), 15th The King's Hussars (Battle of Waterloo)
    • Colonel Edwin Wodehouse (1817-1870), son of Philip Wodehouse (1788-1846)
      • Sir Edwin Frederick Wodehouse (c. 1850–1934), senior British police officer, son of Edwin Wodehouse
    • Reverend Frederick Armine Wodehouse (1842-c. 1921), son of Philip Wodehouse (1788-1846)
      • Norman Wodehouse (1887–1941), Royal Navy vice-admiral, son of Reverend Frederick Armine Wodehouse (1842-c. 1921)
    • Henry Ernest Wodehouse (1845-1929), son of Philip Wodehouse (1788–1846)
      • P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975), English humor writer, son of Henry Ernest Wodehouse
      • Richard Wodehouse (1892–1940), cricketer, son of Henry Ernest Wodehouse (brother of P. G. Wodehouse)
• Edmond Wodehouse (1784–1855), MP for Norfolk, and later, Norfolk East, son of Thomas Wodehouse, younger son of Sir Armine Wodehouse, 5th Baronet
  • Philip Edmond Wodehouse (1811–1887), British colonial administrator, eldest son of Edmond Wodehouse
    • Edmond Robert Wodehouse (1835–1914), British Unionist politician, only child of Philip Edmond Wodehouse
• Armine Wodehouse (MP) (1860–1941), MP for Saffron Walden, a younger son of John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley

References

1. Joseph Horsfall Turner, Yorkshire place names, as recorded in the Yorkshire Domenday book, 1086 (1901)
2. Henry Harrison, Surnames of the United Kingdom: A Concise Etymological Dictionary, 1912, p. 301; but see also J. R. R. Tolkien, who assumed that in at least some cases (Woodhouse Lane and Woodhouse Ridge in Leeds), the name had been corrupted from woodwose "wild man"; see Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings (1967), s.v. "Woses": "This word [wudewāsa] survived into the Tudor period as woodoses (often corrupted to woodhouses), and survives in heraldry, since the woodhouse = a wild hairy man clad in leaves, common as a supporter to arms."
3. Thomas Wotton, The English Baronetage, 1741, 164-177.
4. Francis Blomefield, 'Thetford, chapter 25: Of the Corporation', An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: volume 2 (1805), pp. 132-147. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=78043
5. The Marquis of Ruvigny and Ranieval, The Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal: The Mortimer-Percy, 402ff.

• Lord Wodehouse, The Wodehouses of Kimberley, London (1887).