Treadwell / Tredwell Origins and Meaning

The Treadwell name is of English origin, in its earliest form usually found as "Tredwell". The American branch of the family traces the line back to two brothers - Thomas and Edward - who came from England, first to Ipswich, Massachusetts in the 1630s. Excellent research in England by Thomas Alanson Tredwell found the baptism records for Thomas and Edward and was able to push the line solidly back to a Thomas Tredwell of Sibford Gower, in the parish of Swalcliffe, Oxfordshire, who was born about 1510. (Treadwell, Thomas Alanson: Treadwell Adventures in Ancestry, NY Genealogical and Biographical Record, v104 p195 Jan 1973).

The earliest known records for Tredwells are from Oxfordshire. Besides Thomas, b. 1510, there was also a Henry Tredwell of Somerton, who is recorded, "In 1573 the ‘Court of the Supervisor’ was held, when Thomas Fermor had become the lord, and all the tenants had to present themselves with the evidence of title to their holdings, generally a copy of the relevant court roll… Henry Tredwell now had five and a half yardlands (abt 125 to 150 acres).” (Hayter, Deborah, “Somerton’s Farmers  1279 – 1734”, Somerton, Oxfordshire, England) It is not certain when or how he acquired his rights to the land though in many cases, it was hereditary.

Surnames for the common folk, of which the Tredwells most certainly were, did not become popular until abt the 13^th to 15^thcentury. The Dictionary of American Family Names (accessed on Ancestry.com) says Treadwell is a “metonymic occupational name for a fuller, from Middle English tred(en) ‘to tread’ + well ‘well’. Fulling was the process by which newly woven cloth was cleaned and shrunk by the use of heat, water, and pressure (from treading) before finally being stretched and laid out to dry on tenter hooks”. This might seem relevant if the adaptation of the name was in the 13^th to 15^th century timeframe in light of the British History Online article about the Parish of Swalcliffe (http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol10/pp225-260. Digitized from “A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 10, Banbury Hundred. Originally published by Victoria County History, London, 1972.”) which says, “Although sheep never became predominant in Swalcliffe's economy there was a ready market for wool both at Banbury and in the local weaving industry. In c. 1543 it was said that sheep were commonly bought and sold within the parish and the real profits came from the fleeces.”

There are other possibilities for the name origin. Graham Treadwell, who has done extensive research on the Treadwell family in the UK, Australia and New Zealand has a webpage about the meaning of Treadwell - http://treadwell.htmlplanet.com/treadwellname.htm, and puts forth this, “ ‘By Tre, Pol and Pen ye shall know Cornishmen!’. The prefix TRE is often found in place names or family names in Celtic parts of the British Isles. In Cornish and Welsh names Tre means a farm, home or homestead. In Wales, there is an optional spelling, Tref, while Pentref denotes a settlement larger than a village. So, Trederwen means home of the oak; Tregynonis the home of Cynon: Tremadoc is the town of Madoc, and so forth. Furthermore, the Celtic adjective well means better (including health), larger or additional. There is also a noun well(t) meaning grass, herbage or dried straw such as that used for thatching roofs (to "gwellt" is to thatch aroof).  A Celtic language adviser I contacted thought the family name is more likely to be of West Country origin, probably from Cornwall, rather than from Wales. The conclusion is that Treadwell may have been a settlement no larger than a village located in southwest England, quite likely in present day Cornwall. Furthermore, the place would have been associated with a healthy environment and good access to grassland that may also have provided a basis for roof thatching. In commonwith the majority of the population, our family seems to have an agricultural background.”

In the 1970’s, a bogus genealogical company called Halberts, of Bath, Ohio, put out books purportedly about individual family histories. The Treadwell variation said the Treadwell name was derived from an original individual who lived “by a path or road by a spring or stream”.  They included in their book a Coat of Arms for the Treadwell family which had a chevron with three clovers on the shield and a rather gory drawing of a hand holding a sword with a Turk’s head impaled (the implication being that Treadwells had been in the Crusades). Another Coat of Arms for a John Treadwell is also found and reproduced on the internet occasionally. The Coat of Arms question was put to rest by no less an authority than the College of Arms itself (at the request of the aforementioned Graham Treadwell) which provided a very detailed, and long, report on the search for a Treadwell Coat of Arms. The gist of it was that Coats of Arms were granted by the King, usually as a consequence of Knighthood, and that their use was recorded and carefully regulated by the College of Arms and that furthermore, no record of any Treadwell, or other name variation, had ever been granted a royal Coat of Arms.

So, alas, we are of the common folk. But, by hard-work,intelligence and perseverance, the early Tredwells pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and became landowners and respectable merchants and have certainly played many important roles in the history of their times.

(Tim Treadwell, July 2018)