Gledhill Family History

Gledhill is the 18,687th most popular last name (surname) in the United states: frequency is 0.001%: percentile is 77.402 [SourceCBN]

BARKISLAND is a village and a township which is bounded on the west by the Ryburn stream and by Rishworth township to the south. Another of Calderdale's great 17th. century houses is Barkisland Hall built in 1638 by John Gledhill. It is still occupied and recently (1998) has changed hands. Richard Gledhill of Barkisland Hall was killed at the battle of Marston Moor fighting on the Royalist side.


Portions of a good article by Martyn Gleaden about some theories of the origins of the Gledhill name...
The book by George Redmonds "English Surnames - Yorkshire, West Riding" discusses how names evolved and then ramified throughout Yorkshire. Early Court records suggest that prior to 1300 A.D. filial names (surnames) did not exist and it was only from about 1347-1377 that surnames were commonly used, and became hereditary by 1379.
Certainly the name Gledhill existed in Yorkshire by 1275 and by 1545 there were 18 families bearing the Gledhill surname. However, the place name Gleadless existed in South Yorkshire from the 13th century, many miles from where the Gledhill name originated in West Yorkshire suggesting that not all Glead/Gled surnames descended from the West Riding Gledhills.
The word "Glede" is probably derived from the Old English word "Gleoda" which means a Kite, a bird of prey, so the name Gleaden means the fort/hill/clearing where the Kites (gledes) hunt. But (and there's always a but) in Old English there is also the word "Glaed" which means "bright clearing in a forest" or "glade". The name Gleaden could be derived from either of these roots.
An article that can be read on the Gledhill Family Page by a Mr P W Gledhill gives some interesting information on the origin of the Gledhill surname, starting from a Ricardus de Gledhill and a Thomas de Gledhill mentioned in the 1379 West Yorkshire Poll Tax records.

...for complete article see: http://www.gleaden.f9.co.uk/gleaden/origin.htm

Tom Gledhill ~ an e-mail from Tom Gledhill states "I found in my father's aunt's Bible that the first Gledhill was a Spaniard named Gledzeal who changed his name to Gledhill when he emigrated to England". Tom is putting a history together and will give us more information shortly.

Steve Gledhill ~ has told us, "the family tree my father passed on to me is entitled 'The issue of James Gledhill and Sarah Ackroyd', compiled September 1935 by Eric C. Gledhill. At the end it states: 'An old Scotsman, some years ago, told me how the family name originated. The name Gledhill is pure Gaelic and any dictionary will show that 'Glede' means 'Falcon' 'Hawk' or 'Bird of prey.' His story was that there were two clans of 'Gledes' - the clan of the hills and the clan of the Lowlands - hence 'Gledhill'. The Gledes of the hills were robbers and used to swoop down on the Lowlanders like Hawks.' Ernest H. Gledhill."

One of the best Gledhill sites on the web is by Lloyd Gledhill (LG)
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~gledhill/index.html Make sure to visit! The following articles can be found and his web site.

More Gledhill history-History of the Gledhill name

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