Graveney

What happened to the Graveney's after they left Graveney? At least this is a tempting question because Graveney (the surname) derives from the village of the same name near Faversham, in Kent. The question arises however as there are virtually no records of the nameholders in the county of origin, and indeed not many in surrounding counties either until the 19th century.This strongly suggests that sometime around the early 17th century the original village was largely cleared under the iniquitous Enclosure Acts, and the tenants forced out. In so doing they took as their surname, the name of their former village. The question still remains - Where did they go? It is certainly true that at times the surname has become confused with the short form "Graven" although this is from a different source, the Anglo Saxon "Grav" plus the diminutive "in" to signify the "The son of the Steward." Graveney derives from the Olde English "Grafon eg" which means "the water ditch" and describes the original stream on which the village stood. Graveney appears in the 1086 Domesday Book as "Grafonaea" from which it is easy to deduce the later name (and surname).Examples of the surname recording include Elisabeth Gravney who married Robert Alderson at St. Leonards Church, Shoreditch, on May 23rd 1783, and Matthew Graveney who married Martha Huggett at Dorking, Surrey, On July 1st 1861. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Graveney, which was dated November 6th 1631, christened at Dulwich College, Camberwell, during the reign of King Charles 1, known as "The martyr" 1625 - 1649. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.