Wake baronets

Arms of Wake: Or, two bars gules in chief three torteaux[1]
Crest of Wake: The Wake knot[2] The Wake knot has the form of a carrick bend

The Wake Baronetcy, of Clevedon in the County of Somerset, is a title in the Baronetage of England. It was created on 5 December 1621 for Baldwin Wake. The sixth Baronet assumed the additional surname of Jones but died childless. The eighth Baronet sat as Member of Parliament for Bedford. The twelfth Baronet was High Sheriff of Northamptonshire in 1879. The thirteenth Baronet was a Major-General in the British Army. Another member of the family to gain distinction was Charles Wake, second son of the tenth Baronet; he was an Admiral in the Royal Navy.[3]

Joan Wake (1884–1974), the noted Northamptonshire historian, was a daughter of the 12th Baronet.

Legend states this family to be descended from the Anglo-Saxon nobleman Hereward the Wake (died c.1072). This legend has been examined by various genealogists, unfavourably by Horace Round[4][5] but favourably by Sir Iain Moncreiffe, who provided grounds for considering it to be accurate.[6] The Wake family of Lincolnshire claimed descent from Hereward's daughter Turfrida[7] (by his second wife Alftruda)[8] who married Hugh d'Envermeu, founder of Wilsford Priory in Lincolnshire, by whom she was the mother of Godiva d'Envermeu, who married Richard de Rullos. From this point the pedigree is proven: Adeline de Rullos (daughter of Richard de Rullos and his wife Godiva d'Envermeu) married Baldwin FitzGilbert and left an eldest daughter and co-heiress Emma de Rullos, wife of Hugh Wac, feudal baron of Bourne[9] in Lincolnshire.[10]

Since the accession of the twelfth Baronet in 1865, each holder of the title has borne the first-name Hereward. The family seat is Courteenhall House in Northamptonshire.

  1. ^ Montague-Smith, P.W. (ed.), Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, Kelly's Directories Ltd, Kingston-upon-Thames, 1968, p. 815, Wake baronets
  2. ^ Montague-Smith, P.W. (ed.), Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, Kelly's Directories Ltd, Kingston-upon-Thames, 1968, p. 815, Wake baronets
  3. ^ George Edward Cokayne Complete Baronetage, Volume 1 1900
  4. ^ Montague-Smith, P.W. (ed.), Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, Kelly's Directories Ltd, Kingston-upon-Thames, 1968, p. 86
  5. ^ Round, J. Horace, Feudal England: Historical Studies on the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries, Chapter: The Knights of Peterborough[1]
  6. ^ Debrett's Peerage, 1968, p. 86, quoting The Genealogists' Magazine, Vol.15, pp. 359–69
  7. ^ Debrett's Peerage, 1968, p. 86
  8. ^ See E. King, "The Origins of the Wake Family: the early history of the barony of Bourne in Lincolnshire." Northamptonshire Past and Present; 5 (1973–1977), pp. 166–176
  9. ^ Debrett's Peerage, 1968, p. 86
  10. ^ Sanders, I.J. English Baronies: A Study of their Origin and Descent 1086-1327, Oxford, 1960, pp. 107–8