| Notes |
- The recorded history of the Belknap family commences with John Belknap, father of Sir Robert Belknap. It continues through Robert's son,
Sir Hamon Belknap (about 1380-1429), to Hamon's son,
Sir Henry Belknap (about 1420-1488), to Henry's son,
Sir Edward Belknap (about 1471-1521).
The surname Belknap, as carried through descendants of Sir Robert Belknap, appears to have died out with Sir Robert's great grandson, Sir Edward. However, several other males surnamed Belknap, whose connections to Sir Robert are at present unknown, were contemporaries of Sir Robert's family during the 15th and 16th Centuries. The Belknap surname may have continued through one of these other contemporaneous Belknaps through the Beltoft family of Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire ("Beltoft" appears to be an Anglo-Saxon etymological derivative of the Norman surname "Belknap"), who assumed or resumed using the surname Belknap in the 1500s, not long before Abraham Belknap (formerly known as Beltoft) emigrated to Massachusetts in the 1630s. (Adaline Knight, first wife of Utah Pioneer Gilbert Belnap (5th great grandson of Abraham Belknap), is a direct descendant of Sir Robert Belknap several ways: through her paternal great grandfather, Samuel Knight, whose Hutchens ancestry ties to Sir Robert via the Whitney-Baskerville-Devereaux-Ferrers lines; and through her paternal grandmother, Rizpah Lee, whose Lee ancestry on both sides of her family ties to Sir Robert via the Hungerford and Shelley lines.)
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