Places Named Kinnersley

According to The Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames by Charles Wareing Beardsley (Oxford, 1901), the name Kinnersley was originally a place name. People came to use it as a surname to indicate their place of birth. With this in mind, we can identify with reasonable assurance the parts of England where the Kinnersley family originated.

The Concise Dictionary of English Place Names by Eilert Ekwall (1936) and The AA Road Book of England and Wales (1962) list five small present-day villages with this name, all located in west central England (South Midlands):

• Kinnersley, in St James Parish, 4.5 miles SW of Weobley, Herefordshire, on the river Wye. This village has the remains of Kinnersley Castle, parts of which predate the Norman conquest. An extensive history of Kinnersley Castle is currently available online at http://www.kinnersley.com/castle. Since 1989 the castle has been undergoing gradual renovation, and is open for tours and special events.
• Kinnersley and Kinnersley Moor, four miles W of Newport, Staffordshire.
• Kinnersley, in St Chad parish, on the Wildmoors, five miles NNE of Wellington, Shropshire. Originally "Kynardesey."
• Kinnersley, four miles S of Worcester, Worcestershire.
• Kinnerley, in Montgomery.

In addition, there is a Kinnersley Manor south of London, two miles south of Reigate, in Surrey.

In Canada, there is a small town named Kindersley, located in southwestern Saskatchewan.

In the United States, there is a street in Louisville, Kentucky named Kennersley Drive. But the only place in the US having this name that I am aware of is in Queen Annes County, Maryland. There, a private road leads to Kennersley Point, on the west side of Clabber Hill Road, just south of Southeast Creek Road, approximately two miles west of Church Hill. An estate called Kennersley was established on Island Creek in this area about 1785-98. The mansion is of late Georgian architecture, and served as the residence of Capt Richard Ireland Jones in the early 1800's. Nearby also is Kennersley Pointe Marina.

The place name Kinnersley itself has an interesting origin – it derives from "Cyneheard's Lea." The word 'lea' is sometimes used to refer to a clearing or meadow, and sometimes to the surrounding forest. Cyneheard was apparently the name of the original proprietor of the land, although there is no hard evidence who he was. There were two historical figures with the name of Cyneheard – one was a Saxon prince who lived around the year 770, the other was Archdeacon of Canterbury about the year 830 (see Anglo-Saxon England, F. M. Stenton, 1971, p. 440).