Before proceeding to a description of the Deeds and Seals, it will be convenient to give a short account of the early history of the Sydney family and of the means by which the lands to which these deeds relate came into their possession. The original home of the Sydneys was a farm, which still bears their name, in the parish of Alfold, on the borders of Surrey and Sussex, about ten miles south of Guildford. The first member of the family of whom we have any knowledge is a John de Sydenie, who occurs as acquiring land on the south of Chiddingfold wood (a few miles west of Alfold) sometime in the reign of Edward I. He may be the John atte Sydney who occurs as witness to a deed in 1313. This John was probably the father or grandfather of a John atte Sydenye, son of John and Isabella, who with Gunnilda his wife held lands in Surrey and Sussex, part of which had come to him through his mother. His home is described as La Sydenye, and one of the deeds in which he is mentioned was executed there: these deeds are dated between 1331 and 1345. Nearly eighty years later, in 1420, a Nicholas Sedenye of Alfold gave to his daughter Alice lands in Cranlegh called ‘le Thondurslaghus’, which came to him at the death of Gunnilda, his mother. Though the interval is a little long, one may conjecture that he was a son of the John atte Sydenye of 1331 to 1345, and younger brother of the first William Sedenye, who in 1393 acquired a tenement called ‘le Rotlond’ in Shalford, near Guildford, and ten years later a share in the manor of Loseley. In 1408 there is mention of William, and his son William, in connexion with Rudgwick, just over the Sussex border. This second William is probably the father of William Sydenye, the younger, who appears in 1427, for in the next year Alice, daughter of William Sydeneye, the elder, married Arnold, son of Thomas Brocas. In 1435 we meet with William Sydeney, the elder, of Cranlegh, and William Sydeney, his son, of Sussex, who in 1445 is styled William Sydeney of Kingsham, a house on the south side of Chichester. William Sydeney of Cranlegh died on October 8, 1449. On August 15, 1451, William Sydeney of Kingsham executed at Baynards a deed providing for the descent of certain of his lands. He died about a year later, but certainly before October 1452. This William Sydney of Kingsham is the first person of any importance in the genealogy. Though the family had gradually acquired considerable estates in Surrey and Sussex, they were till about this time at the best but small country gentlemen. William Sydney of Cranlegh used a seal with a simple capital W.; his son was the first to use an armorial seal, showing the Sydney pheon, on the deed of August 15, 1451. As the heads of the Kingsham and Cranlegh family of Sydneys had been for fifty years named William, it is possible that the long-continued use of a seal with a capital W may have been the origin of the pheon.
Charles Galton Darwin, 1887-1962
