Titheridge

This unusual name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving from a place called "Titheridge" believed to have been situated in Cheshire. It is an example of a not uncommon phenomenon in medieval England, a "lost" village, one that has disappeared from the maps. Whole villages were "cleared" and their populations dispersed to make room for sheep pastures during the 13th and 14th Centuries, and there were also natural disasters, like the Black Death of 1348, and accidents of war that caused villages and hamlets to "disappear". The meaning of the placename is "Tidhere's ridge" from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name "Tidhere", meaning "festival spear" and "hrycg", back, or ridge. Recorded in the London Church Registers are the christenings of Elizabeth Sophia, daughter of William Henry Walter and Sophia Titheridge, on June 15th 1853 at St. John the Evangelist, Notting Hill, and of Henry John, son of Edward and Eliza Titheridge, on May 11th 1856 at St. James', Paddington. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Francis Tedderidge, which was dated December 16th 1677, christened at St. Margaret's, Westminster, London, during the reign of King Charles 11, known as "The Merry Monarch", 1660 - 1685. 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.