My Dredges came from
Wiltshire,
England, but I'm interested in the distribution of the
Dredge Surname, and where it might have originated.
The 1881 census recorded
Wiltshire as the most populous county for Dredges with 154 of that name recorded there. Somerset had 127 Dredges, Middlesex 118,
Surrey 76,
Hampshire 39, Gloucestershire 32, Worcestershire 31,
York WR 22,
Warwick 18,
Berkshire and Isle of
Wight 17,
Derbyshire 16,
Devonshire 14, Monmouthshire 13 and Dorset and
Yorkshire NR 12. All other counties had less than 10.
Of the possible variant spellings, there were 12 Dridges in
Sussex and 6 in
Hampshire, while for the name
Drodge, 12 were in
Hampshire and 5 in
Lancashire. The name
Drudge was clustered in the Isle of
Wight, with 70 Drudges there, 26 in
Hampshire and 10 each in Middlesex and
Surrey.
The surname
Drage has a different derivation (and its own surname forum). It was most common in Northamptonshire in 1881 (482 persons), with 170 in Middlesex and 138 in Hertfordshire.
Are there any other early
Dredge families out there?
Belinda in Australia
