The earliest references found to date are in the 16th century in Yorkshire (Spofforth, Collingham, Copgrove) and Lincolnshire, and with a large separate branch in Suffolk (usually spelt Whincop).
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The Cumberland Quarter Sessions (Coroner's Inquests) in 1762 looked into the death of Elizabeth Benson, aged 30, who died walking from Whincop in Birker to Boot in Eskdale, when she tried to ford Birker Beck at the site of a footbridge which had been destroyed by earlier floods, and was swept into the River Esk and drowned.