Family legend had it that William Titchener moved from Wiltshire to Kent to take up a position as a farm labourer. The history of the early Titcheners in Kent is recorded in a document written by E.G Titchener, probably in the 1920's, which says: "One summer day in the years between Trafalgar and Waterloo a young man was walking over London Bridge. To young William Titchener, brought up in a quiet Wiltshire village yet full of interest in the great world of which London was the centre, it was a "a crowded hour of glorious life" thus to stand on the famous bridge and drink in the sights and sounds of London Town. But he could not linger; he must hurry on all too soon, for at 10.0 o'clock he had to present himself at an inn in the Borough, where he was to join Mr. Spain's carter. On the great waggon which the carter had brought up to market laden with Kentish fruit William Titchener would journey down through Kent to Park Gate Farm near Chelsfield, where he had obtained a situation."
It has been an effort to establish where William came from in Wiltshire but this has been done; he came from Highworth, Wilts on the Wiltshire/Berkshire border. There are lots of Titcheners in the census' from the villages in the Vale of the White Horse to the east of Swindon.
How he came to 'obtain a situation' may never be discovered now though, looking at the 1851 census from the area in Kent he settled suggests others had moved from Wiltshire to Kent too so there may be a family connection. For example one of his sons, Thomas, worked for a Mr Stiles at Lullingstone, who was born in Wiltshire. In addition there are a number of Titcheners and Titcombs who lived just to the west in Surrey.
Connections to the Titchener side of the family remained strong until the mis 1930's and reference to them appear in John Stacey's childhood memoirs and Frank Jefferies memories of his early years. John Thomas Titchener who moved away from Chelsfield to teach near Aylesbury, Bucks. in 1880, had 7 children or which at least two moved to Australia and served in Australian forces during WW1. The oldest, John Wesley Titchener was a POW on the MV Montevideo Maru when it was sunk off the Phillipines in 1942.
A chart of Titchener descendants is in the chart section.