Tracing The Calkin Ancestry

Firstly it has to be understood that there is no definitive spelling of "Calkin".
Long before the days when everyone could read and write, often when someone was recording a name, they would ask the supplier of the name and simply record how it sounded.
In most cases there was no point in asking the individual themselves how their name was spelt as they would have no grasp of the alphabet at all.
Therefore a northern accent may make the Calkin name sound like and be spelt as "Caulkin",
the "i" could easily become a "y" or even an "e" and it would be just as easy to mistake a plural group of Calkins to be forever thus spelt.
For my part though I will stick with that which is by far the most prevalent spelling - Calkin.

The earliest mention of Calkin (or derivative thereof) that I have traced so far was in reports of the Battle Of Crecy in 1346 (26th August).
This was a most significant battle of The Hundred Years War.
The "Hundred Years' War" between France and England (1337-1453) was an episodic struggle lasting well over a hundred years, for much of the time without any conflict.
King Edward the Third was accompanied into battle with a number of knights, one of who was listed as:
                            Sir Hugh Calkyn of Flanders with 4 Esquires.
This can be read in "English Historical Documents" - The Government Of The Realm by David Douglas (and others).
(I read that on a visit to the Society of Geneaologists in London)

Also in Ayton and Preston: the Battle of Crecy it says that Sir Hugh Calkyn was:
Paid in advance (April 1346) for his participation and he brought 4 squires to the campaign (4 suggests a relatively minor knight.)

Furthermore,
Register of Edward, the Black Prince, preserved in the Public Record Office, annotated and published by MCB Davies, 1933:
Sir Hugh was given a ring with one diamond by the Black Prince in 1352 (the same thing being given to Sir Thomas Morze).
Therefore Sir Hugh did survive the battle of Crecy, and was present around the Court of the Black Prince (Kennington, when in London).
Eldest son of King Edward III - Edward of Woodstock (1330–1376), was invested as Prince of Wales in 1343 and has gone down in history as the "Black Prince".

In 1353 the Black Prince took a company of knights to quell a disturbance in Cheshire, which is the county in which the Calkyns are recorded 150 years later.
(They obviously lived outside the city of Chester and came in to sell fish at the market there, as they are recorded as country fishermen).
Could it be that Sir Hugh went with the Black Prince and was rewarded with land for his service ? ....
I know that's speculation, but it seems possible if he survived the later plague outbreaks.

The only other sources for material are all the usual places:

• Parish Registers and collections thereof such as The Church of the Latter Day Saints
  
• Birth, Marriage and Death Certificates
  
• Census Records
  
• Trade Directories
  
• Word of mouth ....
  

Unfortunately, my pedigree line research has hit a wall with Nathaniel Calkin of Stafford.
There are mentions of earlier Calkin families, such as in the Monmouth, Waverton and Cheshire areas but I've not yet proved a link between them and what is not very far away, Staffordshire.

Census Records
1841 census was taken on the night of 7th June 1841 and gave the total population as 15,914,000.

Note: In the 1841 Census a policy of rounding down of ages was in place.
As such people aged:

• 15-19 were recorded as 15;
• 20-24 were recorded as 20;
• 25-29 were recorded as 25;
• 30-34 were recorded as 30;
• 35-39 were recorded as 35;