This is part of a One Name Study to collect together in one place everything about the Kingman surname and the variants of that name. The hope is that other researchers like you will join our study to help make it a valuable reference point for people studying lines that cross or intersect. Please contact the project leader, add categories to your profiles, add your questions to the bulletin board, add details of your name research, etc.
It is proposed that the vast majority of Kingmans who can be traced back to Dorset originate from one family in the area of Hazelbury Bryan.
There is one definite exception to this, Benjamin Hiscut (or Hiskett) Kingman was born in 1796 in Longbridge, Wiltshire. His children (by his wife Ann Hunter) were all born in Wyke Regis and they lived in the Weymouth area. He links back into the Kingman of Wiltshire (possibly John Kyngeman) line.
The other possible exception is Thomas Kingman who married Lettice Snook in 1761 in Symondsbury, they had several children as shown here and there are burials locally that correlate well with their expected ages (based on them being in their twenties when they married). The burial for Thomas has him as being aged 80 in 1819, so born about 1739. The baptism of Thomas Kingman in 1740, s/o George and Christian, ties in well with this, but this was in Hazelbury Bryan, 21 miles inland of Symondsbury. Two children of Thomas and Lettice bore the same names as these probable grandparents.
No earlier records of Kingman families in the immediate vicinity of Symondsbury have been found, but there is a Thomas Kingman baptised in 1746 in Combpyne, Devon, s/o John and Joan (see Kingman of Devon tree). Combpyne is 7 miles from Symondsbury, on the opposite side of the bay, and is perhaps a more likely origin for this Thomas. There is also a baptism record for a Christian Kingman, d/o Thomas and Lettice, at Stockland, Devon [IGI] who is almost certainly of the same family.
There is a y-DNA project dedicated to the Kingman surname, details of which can be found on the Kin(g)(s)man Family website