The name Kemp is derived from the Saxon word to kemp or combat, which in Norfolk is retained to this day, a foot-ball match being called camping or kemping; and thus in Saxon a kempen signifies a combatant, a champion, or man of arms. This family hath been of long continuance in this county; Galfrid Kemp lived at Norwich in 1272, Robert Kemp in 1306, and soon after, or about that time, lived,
Norman Kemp, whose son Roger, left Ralph, who married a daughter of De-la-Hant's.
William Kemp, their son, married a daughter of one Barnstaple, or Bainspath, whose son,
Alan Kemp of Weston in Suffolk, Esq. married Isabel, daughter to Sir Philip Hastyngs, and had issue John and Alexander, to which
John, Sir Philip Hastyngs, his grandfather, in 1324, gave the manor of Gissing; this John married Alice, daughter to Robert Duke of Brampton in Suffolk, coheir to Julian Buteveyleyn, and had for his share of her inheritance, the manors of Hastyngs and Dallings in Gissing, and left issue Robert, Ralph, John, Alice, and Anne. He is sometimes called in evidences John de Flordon, Esq.
Robert, the eldest, married Mary, daughter of Bartholomew White of Shottisham, Esq. He had another wife named Agnes, and a third, (as some pedigrees,) viz. Katerine, daughter of Roger Haukere of Redenhall; but left issue by Mary only, viz.
Jaffrey Kemp of Weston, Esq. who married the daughter of Sherrington of Cranworth, Esq. and left issue,
Robert Kemp of Gissing, Esq. who married Margaret, daughter of William Curson of Sturston in Suffolk, and by her had issue, Robert; and Edmund, who married Elizabeth, daughter of John Style of London; John; and William, who was rector of Sturston; Ralph; and Cecily, who married John Melton of Sturston aforesaid; and Alice, a nun at Barking.
Robert Kemp of Gissing, Esq the eldest son, had two wives: Elizabeth, daughter to John Appleyard of Braken-Ash, Esq. by whom he had three daughters; Mary, married to Thomas Jernegan of Cove; Elizabeth, who
