"LO, THESE LARGE ANCESTORS HAVE LEFT A TRACE
OF THEIR STRONG SOULS IN MINE, DEFYING DEATH AND TIME."
- H. H. BOYESEN.
Origin of the Name
There have been numerous books written on the origin of names, and they all possess interest to those of us who like to trace things to their source. An examination of almost any extensive list shows a bewildering array of surnames in use at the present time. One cannot but help sympathizing with the simple-minded old lady who was at a loss to account for the great number of Smiths in the world, until one day her mystery was solved, when she discovered an immense building almost covered with a huge sign reading "Smith Manufacturing Company." This story may be more interesting than historical, but her solution of the problem of derivation was a simple, and seemingly, the only plausible one, not only for the Smiths, but also for many of the varieties of curious nomenclature in evidence around us.
We are told that the giving of names dates from the development of civilization in the Middle Ages and the rise of the Christian religion. The zeal of the converts could not be more fully expressed than by dropping their Pagan names and substituting Scriptural ones in keeping with the new faith. These "Christian names," as they were then and are still called, were universally adopted with the spread of the new religion, and as apostates were many, and names few, confusion followed as a result of similar personal names.
Imagine the condition in Poland, where, in 1367, the King and his people were converted to Christianity. The mass of the people were formed into companies and baptized by the priests, "a whole company at a time," giving the same name to all the individuals composing that company. In the first company all the men were designated Peter, and all the women Catherine; in the Second all became Pauls and Margarets. This was indeed making names on a wholesale basis, and no wonder that there came into use distinguishing or "nicknames" to segregate the individual from the other bearers of the same name. That some of these names should finally grow into hereditary or family names naturally follows. Thus, Peter the small, perhaps so called to distinguish him from a Peter the long, would become Peter Small and his neighbor or relative, Peter Long.
These steps in name evolution took place in Britain as well as on the Continent, and the first surnames or family names in England date from about the time of the Conquest (A. D. 1086).
Since all names were originally significant, although their meaning may have been forgotten in time, it is easy to account for such names as may have been identified with trades, professions, residence, etc., and for the derivation of Kellogg we would first look for some reason which would have caused the adoption of the name by its first bearer.
Here arises the difficulty of determining the first form of the name, and its many variations may be illustrated by the following examples from the records in Old and New England: Kellog, Kelhogge, Kyllyogge, Kellyogge, Kellogg, Kellogge, Kelogge, Kellok, Kelhoge, Cologe, Kellhogg, Kellork, Kellodge, Cellodge, Kellogue, Kellock, Killhog, Kilhog, Collidge, Calaug, Colloge, Cellog, Keelogg.
We first find the Kelloggs in towns with Saxon names, and if they were Saxon, we have as a possible derivative, Keilhau, the German name of the miner's pickaxe, which is still in existence in Germany, Denmark and Norway.
According to family tradition, however, Great Britain was the original home of the family and there are a number of legends to that effect. The most general of these is that advanced by Hon. Day Otis Kellogg, formerly United States Consul at Glasgow, Scotland, one of the earliest collectors of Kellogg data (See N. E. Hist. Gen. Reg., 1858, Genealogical Items of the Kellogg Family, 88). He relates the tradition that the Kelloggs were partisans of James VI, of Scotland, and came with him to England (when he ascended the throne of Great Britain as James I), and remained there until their settlement in New England. He suggested that the name was derived from two Gaelic words "Kill," a cemetery, and ''Loch," a lake - that is, the "Family of the Lake Cemetery"; and, as a result of his statement, the belief that the family is of Scottish origin is now widespread.
While Kellock and Kellick in England, Ceilog or Cuilog in Wales, Kello and Kellowe [1] in England and Scotland are not unusual, a diligent search of the public records, in Great Britain, fails to reveal the name of Kellock or Kalloch as early as that of Kellogg, which appears in the Lay Subsidies [2] for Debden, Essex County, in 1525 (although Nicholas Keylogg was a witness to the will of William Hall, of Debden, in 1515), when Nicholas and William Kellog, of Debden, were taxed and where the name is found in the parish registers from 1558 to 1640. Keylogg, the earliest form of the name in England, is suggestive. A ''log" in olden times was a kind of hobble for hindering livestock from straying, and "Keylogg'' would indicate a maker of keys for ''logs" or hobbles, or possibly of manacles for prisoners ? in other words a locksmith. Thus we find a Kellogg (born before the discovery of America) living in England more than fifty years before the birth of James VI. [3]
The Kellogg believers in the theory of Welsh descent do not lack for a picturesque legend upon which to base their faith. It is said that "in ancient times, after a severe storm at sea, there was a foundling taken from the keel of a wrecked vessel off the coast of Wales. He spoke a language the Welsh people did not understand, but they brought him up and named him 'Keellogg' from the situation he was in when rescued." Curiously enough there is an old Dutch or Flemish name, Keylooghe, which signifies the eye in the keel of a boat. In this connection, the eminent Dutch archivist, Mons. M. G. Wildman, considers that Kellogg has probably degenerated from Keynoughe, an ancient Flemish family whose coat of arms in 1353 shows a rooster as part of its armorial bearings. In all Celtic languages C is pronounced hard as K. In Wales, a rooster is called Ceilyog or Ceiliog, i.e., Keilog, which comes so remarkably near the present sound of the name that one of my valued correspondents wrote me some time since "that the Kelloggs are Cocks of the Walk in Wales".
The Home County
Essex County, the earliest home of the Kelloggs, so far as at present traced, is tenth in size of the English counties, and its position in the southeastern corner and its nearness to London have given it no small prominence in the general history of England.
Its surface is generally of a gently undulating character, and, after ages of cultivation, it still holds its ancient reputation for fertility.
Essex was rich in its monastic foundations, and was a storm center for the religious activity of the Puritans, many of whom emigrated from within its borders to the shores of the newer and broader England.
Colchester, Danbury, Hatfield, Stratford and Wethersfield are Essex towns whose names were transplanted by these colonists to their New England homes.
The Kelloggs, therefore, are first found in good Puritan surroundings. Debden, where the records first show the name, lies about forty miles north of London, sixteen miles south of Cambridge, and three miles east of Newport, its nearest railway station. Saffron Walden is about four miles from Debden, and Manuden is about the same distance from either Debden or Bishop's Stortford.
By referring to the copy of an old eighteenth century map (see insert), it will be seen that it is but a short distance from Debden and vicinity to Bocking, Great Leighs and Braintree; in fact, a radius of less than thirty miles would include all of the early Essex homes of the Kelloggs, and it would not seem improbable that they were all of the same family.
In the Lay Subsidy Returns for Debden in the Hundred of Uttlesford, County Essex, 28 January, 1525, [4] Nicholas Kellog, of Debden, is taxed on movables valued at 40 shillings, and William Kellog on movables valued at 60 shillings; 1543, Nicholas Kelhogge was taxed on his goods, 6 s., 8 d.; March, 1545, Nicholas Kyllyogge gave 12 s. as benevolence; April, 1547, Nycholas Kellyogge was taxed on his goods, 10 s.; 1 March, 1557, William Kellogg was taxed on lands valued at 40 s.
Debden
Debden, in which we find these our earliest Kelloggs, must have been a beautiful spot, judging from its description in an old history of Essex County. [5] It lies on the west side of Wimbish, and is bounded on the southwest by Widdington and Newport; upon the north by Walden, from which town it is about four miles distant ; it is about three miles wide and about four miles long. "It is named from its situation, from the two Saxon words Deop, signifying deep, and Den, a valley; a great part of it lying very low; notwithstanding which it is so agreeably interspersed with rising grounds as to render it a very pleasant and healthy situation; the inhabitants are supported by husbandry and spinning."
"The Manor of Depden Hall hath an elegant and commodious mansion a little way north of the church, about midway of a pretty large hill; upon its east side lies the village of Depden between which and the house is a small grove of stately trees. In the front is a fine piece of water and a delightful view of the country; on the other sides are a variety of prospects, plantations, gardens, etc., which conspire to add to the beauty of the situation. The church stands about a quarter of a mile from the village upon the declivity of a hill which affords a pleasing prospect; both church and chancel are partly of brick and partly of stone, leaded. The former hath two aysles, the latter of one pace only. This church was built cathedral wise with the tower in the middle; but which by length of time being decayed fell down and demolished a great part of the chancel which hath been repaired; but the tower hath not been rebuilt." This manor was seized by King Henry II in 1155; was granted by him to his son, King John, through whom it was granted to the Earl of Essex. It came back to the Crown as part of the dowry of Mary Bohun, wife of Henry IV, and remained its property through the reigns of Henry V, Henry VI, Edward IV and Henry VIII, who granted it to his favorite Lord Audley.
Great Leighs
Great Leighs is one of two contiguous parishes about seven miles north northeast of Chelmsford, five miles south of Braintree, and about thirty-five miles from London. The name is from the Saxon word Leze, Leaz or Leah, a pasture or untilled ground, a condition in which it undoubtedly was when first named. In Domesday Book, A. D. 1086, it is written Lega or Legra, and, in old deeds, Leghs, Lighs and Lees. The entries in Domesday of Leza and Legra are not distinct, from which it may be inferred that the parishes were not separated. Great Leighs contains about two thousand acres. There are varieties of soil in this district with a very considerable portion of waste ground. The owners of these possessions in the Saxon times were Edric, Ansgar or Esgar, Scalpin, Godric and Ulmar, and at the time of the General Survey they belonged to Eudo Dapifer, Godfrey de Mandeville, and Eudo, Bishop of Baylux.
The church, by its form and materials, appears as old as the Saxon era; it has a round tower, of flint and stones, at the west end, above which rises a tall octagon steeple, containing five bells. The door at the west end has a handsome semi-circular arch, with chevron mouldings. The chancel seems to have been built since the body and nave, and the walls of the whole building are of great thickness, but weak in appearance, and are supported by massive buttresses. The churchyard is very spacious.
Braintree
The parish of Braintree, on the River Stour, in the County of Essex, England, one of the early homes of the Kelloggs, is about forty miles northeast from London, fifteen from Colchester, with which place it is connected by the old Roman road (built in the fifth century of the Christian era) from St. Albans to Colchester, Chelmsford, where Rev. Thomas Hooker, the first minister of Hartford, Conn., was assistant minister until silenced for nonconformity, is about eleven miles south, while Bocking, the home of several of the first settlers of Hartford as well as the parish in which Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, the first minister of Ipswich, Mass., was assistant minister, is separated from Braintree by the width of a street. The following description of Braintree is taken from a history of Essex published in Chelmsford, 1769: "The name of this place in ancient records is variously written, as Blanketre, Brancketrew, Branketrie, Braintree, etc. At the time of the General Survey, it was distinguished by the names Raines and Brancketrew; the first of which is made up of the Saxon word Rey which signifies a river; the latter is composed of the Old English word bank which signifies a rising ground and the word tre, a town, that is a town upon a hill, which derivations agree well with its situation, it being bounded on each side by a river and on rising ground. In Domesday Book, all that tract of ground of which this parish and that now called Raines, were entered under the name of Raines, but about the reign of Henry III this town was made a distinct parish and called Great Raine to distinguish it from another, which from that time took the name of Little Raine; and Branktree was then styled Hamlettum de Raines, till, in process of time, growing great and a market being kept there, the name of the whole insensibly stole into Braintree. It is a great thoroughfare from London into Suffolk and Norfolk. Bury and Sudbury stagecoaches pass daily through it. The principal manufacture is long baize chiefly exported to Spain and Portugal and which employs many hands. Here is a market every Wednesday well supplied with all kinds of necessaries and at which great quantities of corn, malt, hops, etc., are sold by sample. The buildings are mostly old and of timber; but somewhat improved of late by a few new ones of brick and plaster.
"The parish of Braintree is not very large; the soil is various; a few hops are grown in it; the River Stour waters this parish over which are three brick bridges; one on the road to Witham; another on the road to Chelmsford, and a third is that to Dunmow, all of which are supported at the expense of this parish."
Essex Parish Registers
The following extracts (Table 1) from registers of Essex parishes are inserted for the purpose of showing emigration of the Kelloggs, hoping that they will be of service to some future investigator of the English branch.