Lidbetters and Leadbetters/Leadbeaters etc.

[Phil L]

I'm hoping someone would be able to help with this. I noticed that in Sussex the Lidbetter name is very common, however when I look in northern England the Ledbetter, Leadbetter, Leadbeater becomes more common. I have even found in a will this person talks about those in York as Ledbetter and his brother/cousins in Sussex as Lidbetter is this an accent thing. Most articles talk about the origin of the name being from the Beating of Lead, however may I suggest (yes with no proof) this be 2 different origins. One being the Beating of Lead in Northern England and something else down south in Sussex. I know some of the Sussex people did venture north though and there name did change to Ledbetter plus other variations. Any ideas???

[DianaCanada]

This is odd because today I add a Lidbetter to my tree - a Fanny Lidbetter who married Timothy Swift in Bradford (Quaker marriage), Yorkshire. Census records indicate she was born in Brighton, Sussex.
I am not related to either (Timothy Swift's first wife was probably a relative), but I have extensive Sussex ancestry in Burwash/Heathfield/Warbleton/Herstmonceux, etc - no Lidbetters though!

[Phil L]

Yes Fanny is the daughter of Adam Lidbetter and Lucy Choat Lidbetter (formerly Martin). Adam was the brother of Mary who was the first of her family to become Quakers, and she brought her whole family over to be Quakers. There is a story called "Was it High Treason" about this. I believe if you have a Lidbetter who is a Quaker you probably will be able to trace it back to this one family. I'm just going throught the non-conformist BMD's site and checking this. So far I have found this to be true.

Not being from Sussex and not knowing the area to well I am unsure the places you have stated however places associated with the Lidbetter's are Coombes, Steyning, Bramber and Brighton and a few others. Fanny seems to have moved upto Yorkshire from Sussex and married in 1840. I notice though on my tree (my mother's research actually) that I have their daughter Lucy Ledbetter Swift born about 1853 and buried 2nd July 1859 yes I am amazed that the middle name is Ledbetter with an "e" not an "i". I just found that when looking it up for the date. It is registered in the Bradford Quaker Register. Though I noticed that it is Lidbetter in

www.
ancestry.com so maybe it is a transcribing thing.

[DianaCanada]

They had a son Martin, Sep 1845, Bradford, who is with them in 1851, as is Timothy's son Joseph b. Scarborough. It is Joseph's mother, Charlotte (Ford) who I am connected to.
My Sussex folk come from East Sussex, close to Kent.

[Flora1966]

Hi Phil..

I have a William Lidbetter/Leadbetter in my family tree born c1832 in Pulborough, West Sussex...He married my ancestor Emma Brockhurst on 10/05/1856 in Fittleworth, West Sussex..They had 5 children all born West Sussex...

Jules x

[Phil L]

Hi Jules

I noticed a number of Lidbetters in the census from Pulborough. Do you know much about William or his family?

[Phil L]

After checking the record for your Emma Brockhurst I noticed it was listed on Family Search that she married William Libeter. That is one spelling I had not thought of checking. There are just so many many variations of the Lidbetter/Ledbetter/Leadbeater/Ledbitter surname it is hard to keep track of or to find the people in the records. So thankyou for that.

[Phil L]

After doing more checking it looks like it is only the Leadbeaters or more specific that those with the starting part being "Lead" that are main in the north the ledbetters, Lidbetters etc are from the Sussex area. And I do not seem to find many "Lead" (starting names) in Sussex. Yet early records indicate the Ledbetter etc names in Sussex. So I do not believe that there is a connection between Leadbeaters and Lidbetters well at least not after 1500's. There may be the odd 1 or 2 that have there name incorrectly recorded but not the overall family. If any one finds this not to be true I would love to know.

[Geoffers]

At a time of varying levels of literacy, I would be disinclined to put too much emphasis on one spelling occurring more frequently than another.

Variant spelling depended to some degree on the accent/local dialect of the person, and also on the understanding of that accent by the person who may have written it down. Many of the surviving written records about families may have been made by people who were not local to an area and found the accent unusual - writing down what they heard - degrees of education amongst the literate also varied then as now.

What appears to be an occupational surname may have come into being in more than one location; or maybe an occupation specific to a particular area then migrated to other areas - or perhaps those with this surname changed occupation and slowly migrate to other areas of the country. Certainly coastal migration was historically quite common.

It may indeed be that LIDBETTER originated completely separately from LEADBETTER; but I think that proving a connection or separate origin may be a very, very length task - and may possibly be fruitless.

[Phil L]

Geoffers I agree with what you are saying local dialect,degree of education etc. However I do find it interesing that when looking at a distribution of the names (Lidbetter/Ledbetter and Leadbeater) over periods of time at least from the 1500's. So from a Geneology point of veiw it would be significant in being able to link various families and keep other families seperate.

Also I noted that on one web site it stated that it was a variation of the French of beating of pewter, while of course others will state it is Englsh. I guess it depends on what you are trying to achieve in doing your family tree. So if one of your aims is to try to work out the origins of the name I don't think it would be fruitless, however I agree with you it is a very very lengthy task. But I do find it of interest, and of benefit in my family research, if I can put less emphasis on one surname not being lead (beater LOL) in the wrong direction.