Dodamead

This interesting and unusual name with variant spellings Doddemeede and Dodamead, is of English locational origin from one of the estimated seven to ten thousand villages and hamlets that have now disappeared from maps in Britain. The prime cause of these "disappearances" was the enforced "clearing" and dispersal of the former inhabitants to make way for sheep pastures at the height of the wooltrade in the 14th Century. Natural causes such as the Black Death of 1348, also contributed to the lost village phenomenon. The placename, believed to be located in either Wiltshire or Somerset is composed of the Medieval personal name "Dodde", "Dudde", from the Old English "Dodda", "Dudda", frequent in England up to 14th Century, (which may come from a Germanic root meaning "rotund") and the second element "mead", an archaic and poetic word for meadow. Gorge Dodimede married Elizabeth Rathall at Chippenhem, Wiltshire on February 11th 1586, while on January 10th 1591 Phillipp Dodimead married Elizabeth Williams at Trowbridge, Wiltshire. Katherine Daddimaide married Guilielmus Rose at St. Martin in the Field, Westminster, London on August 16th 1628. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Agnes Dodemeede, which was dated January 29th 1559, married Willem Stevens at Trowbridge, Wiltshire, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, known as "Good Queen Bess", 1558 - 1603. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.