Setch

Recorded as Sedge, Sedger, Setch, Sedgman, Sedgeman, and locationally Sedgefield, from the village of the same spelling in County Durham, this is an early medieval English surname. It is usually occupational and sometimes residential for a thatcher, or one who worked with 'segge' or reeds for thatching and flooring or lived at a 'reedy' place. The early records of the University of Cambridge refer to a man called Brown who was employed as a 'seggeman', being responsible for 'thatching walls'. There are also other accounts in for instance 1439, which show wages paid to 'seggethakkers.' The very first recording is probably that of Osbert Segger of Suffolk in the Curia Regis rolls of the year 1200, but he is rapidly followed by Richard de la Seg of Devonshire in the year 1230, Thomas atte Set of Worcestershire in 1310, whilst Peter de Seggesfeld is recorded in the feudal documents for Durham. These are not dated but known to be of the same period. Later recordings in church registers of Greater London include Ann Sedger at St Dunstans in the East, Stepney, on August 23rd 1658, and Richard Sedgeman at St Lukes Chelsea on November 10th 1729.