Huffadine

This most interesting and unusual surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is apparently a locational name from some minor, unrecorded or now "lost" place, believed to have been situated in the Shropshire and Staffordshire area, because of the frequency of early recordings in that region. An estimated seven to ten thousand villages and hamlets are known to have disappeared from maps since the 12th Century, due to such natural causes as the Black Death of 1348, in which an eighth of the population perished, and to the widespread practice of enforced "clearing" and enclosure of rural lands for sheep pastures at the height of the wool trade in the 15th Century. The placename is composed of the Olde English element "hoh", a projecting ridge of land, and "worthign", homestead, enclosure; this is a common placename element in the West Midlands. Examples of the surname include the marriage of Richard Huffadine and Anne Hince on July 5th 1700, at Lichfield Cathedral, Staffordshire, and the christening of Mary, daughter of John and Mary Hufadine, on February 20th 1742, at Tong in Shropshire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Humfreye Huffadyne, which was dated September 13th 1618, a christening witness at Codsall in Staffordshire, during the reign of King James 1 of England and V1 of Scotland, 1603 - 1625. 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.