Cuppleditch

This most interesting surname, of Anglo-Saxon origin, is a habitational name with two possible interpretations. Firstly, it may be a topographical name for "a dweller by a peaked ditch", from the Olde English pre 7th Century word "copel", peaked, plus "dic", a ditch. Alternatively, it may be from one of the estimated seven to ten thousand villages and hamlets that have disappeared from maps in Britain, due to the enforced "clearing" and dispersal of former inhabitants to make way for sheep pastures at the height of the wool trade in the 14th Century. This place is believed to have been located in the Lincolnshire area; the name was composed of the same elements as above. Cobbledick, according to one source, is a peculiarly Cornish surname and may or may not be related to Cuppleditch. Alan de Cubbeldyk was mentioned in 1323 in the Writs of Parliament for Lincolnshire and John Cobeldyke was mentioned in the Close Rolls of Henry 1V, in 1400. Elizabeth Copledike married Richard Epton at Alford, Lincolnshire on November 15th 1545, while William Cuppledike married Elizabeth Gray at Well and Dexthorpe, Lincolnshire on May 5th 1566. Henry Cuppledike, aged 20 yrs., was an early settler in the New World, embarking from London for St. Christopher's in the Barbadoes in January 1634. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Johannes de Cupeldik, which was dated 1273, in the "Hundred Rolls of Lincolnshire", during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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.