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About the study
After searching all my own family records and speaking to as many relatives as I could, I set everything down on paper, paid for some research but eventually got stuck in 1799. I began to write to all the Vicary's in the telephone directory. This brought a flood of replies, letters, family trees, documents, and recollections. None, however, helped me with my own tree.
All of this, together with the information collected by extracting data from public records and indexes has been compiled into some sort of order. It comprises over one hundred separate trees and many thousands of individuals. Some of the trees are very large and span several continents, others are small with just two or three generations. The further back I can research, the more data that is added, I am sure that many of the smaller trees will link into one of the larger ones. It is inevitable that some will never be, the information needed lost in the mists of time
Other modern variants include VICKARY, VICCARY and VICAREY. However, the further back you go the greater the number of variants. In the Middle Ages the name would have been spelt Vicarie, Viccarie, Vicarye or even Vycarie. Remember in those days few could spell their own name, even fewer write it, and it was left to the parish priest or clerk to write down the name as he thought it should be spelt.
The earliest known record of the name is that of Henrie Vicarie in 1249. Roberto Vicario de Acford (now called Oakford) was witness to a deed in 1260. Also a William Vikery was noted on the 1319 Rolls of London.
One noble bearer of the name was Thomas Vicary, surgeon to King Henry VIII about 1528 and for several years master of the Barber Surgeons Company. He was also a Governor of St Bartholomews Hospital, London. There is a painting by Holbein in the Barber-Surgeons Hall showing Thomas receiving the Royal Charter from the King.
In the Guildhall library is a lease bearing his signature.
A coat of arms was granted to the Vicary family of Warminster in Wiltshire in 1558 comprising a black shield with two red cinuefoils on a silver chief, the crest being a gold peacock close.
History of the name
The various UK census returns show the ferquency of the name in all its variants -
Vicary Vickery Viccary Vicarey Vickary
1841 692 1350 9 2 47
1851 678 1535 7 9 50
1861 599 1427 23 10 138
1871 669 1954 18 17 118
1881 809 2197 12 6 114
1891 875 2355 16 15 88
1901 939 3071 12 21 63
1911 995 3226 17 26 36
These figures are taken from the census indexes, not the actual census returns, so include transcription errors made by the enumerators on the night of the census as well as by the transcribers when compiling the indexes. some of these are Vickrey, Vickry, Vicory, Vickury, Vicorry, Viccari and Vicari.
By comparison the 1900 US census has the following
89 2785 0 4 38
Distribution of the name
Birth, marriage and death indexes from the beginning of civil registration in 1837 right up to 2008.
The ten yearly UK census returns from 1841 to 1911.
Extracts from the International Genealogical Index (IGI)
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
and many other smaller indexes
Kellys Trade Directories
Indexes of many local parish registers
Outbound and inbound passenger records
Hundreds of individual family trees sent to me over the past thirty years.
Many other miscellaneous indexes, and this is growing all the time.
I am also accumulating a quantity of VICKERY data.
The process of gathering data is ongoing and if you have not yet written or emailed me with your own tree I would be extremely interested in hearing from you and to receive all the VICARY and/or VICKERY information that you have. If I make a connection I will of course write and let you know.
To follow and/or to participate in this project please follow the link below.