Chapter 34 Austin Plant - Plant Family History Group

On a possible connection to Plantagenet
by Dr John S Plant (Member No 52) March 2007
There has been much debate about a possible connection between the Plant and Plantagenet
surnames. For example, an 1860 Surname Dictionary refers to an edition of the Leicester Mercury
and states that Plant is a corruption of Plantagenet. In 1897, some further discussion appeared in
Notes and Queries (Oxford University Press) [8th S., XII, Aug 28, ’97, p. 167]:
PLANTAGENET. – Some time ago I read an account of a boy named Plant (residing
in Warwickshire, I believe), whose grandfather had borne the royal name Plantagenet,
but had changed it to Plant, thinking that the full name too grand for a poor man. The
note proceeded to state that this boy, if Salic Law had been in force, would have been
king of England. Can anyone tell me more of this, or inform me as to where I should
obtain the note in question? ... PELOPS.
There were replies [op. cit., Sept. 25, ’97, p. 258]:
PLANTAGENET (8th S, xii. 167). – Some such note as this, of the name Plantagenet
shortened to Plant, may be found in Burke’s ‘Vicissitudes of Families.’ But there
is no kind of verification, and the statement that the holder of the name would be king
by Salic law must be taken with very great caution. ... C.F.S. Warren, M.A., Longford,
Coventry.
The Rev Anthony Bathe wrote from Paull, Yorks, the account of the boy Plant that
PELOPS enquires about. It appeared in one of the daily papers - the Standard, I think
- and Mr Bathe mentioned that the boy at that time was living at Paull. – R.H., Ely.
Subsequent Surname Dictionaries have offered different opinions for the meaning of Plant; and,
my own opinion, having studied the matter for many years, is that any connection between the
Plant and Plantagenet surnames is cultural rather than genetic. That is not to say that the embellished
Plantagenet claim does not provide a tidy explanation of some details of the more recently
established evidence:
• there is an indication of illegitimacy in the Plant blazon;
• the Plant-like name, Plantyn or Planteng’, belonged to a servant of the noble Plantagenet
descent which, like the place name, la Planteland, can be related to de Warenne descendants
of Geoffrey Plantegenest (ca.1250) to whom the name Plante or Plont or Plant was nearby;
and,
• the spelling Plantt (a possible abbreviation) is found after the times of the royal House of York
(for whom there is definite evidence that they used Plantagenet as a surname, ca.1450-1500),
to which we can add that DNA evidence indicates that Plantt belongs to the same male-line
family as Plant.
However, on the other hand, it should be added that:
• we can not simply presume that the name Plant referred to the generated (illegitimate) children
of a generator of the realm; Plantegenest (or Plantagenet) can mean ‘a generator of the
realm’, since Geoffrey Plante Genest founded the Angevin Empire, and there is evidence in
early English books to support such a meaning;
• there were many others who could have been the forefather of the Plant offspring;
• apart from a few references, such as ones to Plantegenest, Planteng’ etc., it is not clear how
much the Plantagenet name was in use when the Plant surname was first forming (ca.1250-
1400); and,
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