Faudrie

Recorded in a range of spellings which include Faudrie, Faudry, Fawdrie, Fawdrey, Fawdry, Fawdery, and others, this is an extra-ordinary surname. It looks to be English, and certainly it has been reasonably well recorded in the surviving church registers of the city of London from at least Cromwellian times, and yet it does not seem to appear in any of the known dictionaries of surnames of the British Isles. This suggests that it may originate from the Continent, and possibly from the early French word "faudeur." This was an occupation, literally an apron maker, but was also applied to makers of chain mail armour, initially worn as an apron. If this is not the case, we have not been able to find any other medieval word which would offer a logical alternative explanation for the name. Chain mail production was an expensive and skilled process, brought to England by the Norman-French invaders of 1066, although it may have originated in Flanders, as did so much else in early manufacturing times. Cromwell greatly expanded trade between 1650 and his death in 1658, and he encouraged continental business to set up in England. Examples of recordings include Robert Faudrie who married Sarah Trayfoote at St Katherines by the Tower (of London) on February 21st 1641, and John Faudry and his wife Rebecca at St Mary's Putney on November 11th 1644, and Richard Fawdry, who was probably a relative as he was also recorded at St Mary's on June 2nd 1667.