. Melans,
are found reputably settled in the county of Kent. Persons of strong
genealogical pinion pass from William Jenkin, Mayor of Folkestone in
1555, to his contemporary "John Jenkin, of the Citie of York, Receiver
General of the County," and thence, by way of Jenkin ap Philip, to the
proper summit of any Cambrian pedigree--a prince; "Guaith Voeth, Lord of
Cardigan," the name and style of him. It may suffice, however, for the
present, that these Kentish Jenkins must have undoubtedly derived from
Wales, and being a stock of some efficiency, they struck root and grew
to wealth and consequence in their new home.

Of their consequence we have proof enough in the fact that not only was
William Jenkin (as already mentioned) Mayor of Folkestone in 1555, but
no less than twenty-three times in the succeeding century and a half, a
Jenkin (William, Thomas, Henry or Robert) sat in the same place of
humble honour. Of their wealth we know that, in the reign of Charles I.,
Thomas Jenkin of Eythorne was more than once in the market buying land,
and notably, in 1633, acquired the manor of Stowting Court. This was an
estate of some 320 acres, six miles from Hythe, in the Bailiwick and
Hundred of Stowting, and the Lathe of Shipway, held of the Crown _in
capite_ by the service of six men and a constable to defend the passage
of the sea at Sandgate. It had a chequered history before it fell into
the hands of Thomas of Eythorne, having been sold and given from one to
another--to the Archbishop, to Heringods, to the Burghershes, to
Pavelys, Trivets, Cliffords, Wenlocks, Beauchamps, Nevilles, Kempes, and
Clarkes; a piece of Kentish ground condemned to see new faces and to be
no man's home. But from 1633 onward it became the anchor of the Jenkin
family in Kent; and though passed on from brother to brother, held in
shares between uncle and nephew, burthened by debts and jointures, and
at least once sold and bought in again, it remains to this day in the
hands of the direct line. It is not my design, nor have I the necessary
knowledge, to give a history of this obscure family. But this is an age
when genealogy has taken a new lease of life, and become for the first
time a human science; so that we no longer study it in quest of the
Guaith Voeths, but to trace out some of the secrets of descent and
destiny; and as we study, we think less of Sir Bernard Burke and more of
Mr. Galton. Not only do our character and talents lie upon the anvil and
r