The Budgens

The Budgens joined the Finch family tree on 22 January 1898 when Walter Alfred Finch and Annie Budgen married in Dorking, Surrey. My branch of the family comes from Sussex and Surrey. The surname is pretty common in Sussex and is said to be of Old French origin – one theory is that it’s a nickname from the Anglo-Norman French phrase “bon Jean”, meaning “good John”. The phrase would have been used in the sense of “good man” or “good servant” and is an example of an early European surname gradually created from the habitual use of nicknames. The surname has been spelled in numerous ways over time including Budgin, Butchin, Buchen and Butching.

View where the Budgens are in my current family tree

These are my Budgen ancestors:

At this point the line becomes particularly speculative. At present I’ve followed the theory of a Budgen family researcher who suggests the John Butchin of Bletchingley below was my ancestor as this does seem the most likely. However, an alternative line relates to Horne in Surrey.