The
Origins of the Surname
- Brogden
was (and continues to be) a rural place name, near Barnoldswick, in
the old West Riding of Yorkshire, England. As a result of Local Government
Reorganisation in the 1970s, it is now in the county of Lancashire.
The Oxford Dictionary of Place Names (Ekwall; 1966) lists Brogden and
its first documented mention as Brokden (1307 in the Pudsay Deeds).
Brogden = brook dene = the valley of the brook.
- In the
Yorkshire West Riding edition of Phillimore's English Surnames Series
(George Redmonds; 1973) Brogden is identified as a distinctive local
surname, which "flourished in the rural north of the Riding" and can
be found in the 1379 poll tax records.
- A search
of the 1999 UK electoral registers revealed nearly 1000 Brogdens of
voting age (see below). In addition, some 25 people in the UK who spell
the name with don rather than den are listed. Brogden
family history researchers in the USA, however, find about as many Brogdons
as Brogdens. In Australia and New Zealand, the den spelling prevails.
- Increasing
variations of spelling are coming to light. Some may be Brogdens; some
may be other surnames. For example, in the 1881 UK Census, the following
are noted:
Brogden - 999 persons in the 1881 Census
Bragden - 15 (Lancashire, Berkshire, London area) [Includes 5
Bragden children in the Abingdon Workhouse who came from Cumnor;
these were most likely to be Brogdens.]
Bragdon
- 4 (Northumberland and Kent.) [Interestingly, one Oxfordshire
family of Brogdens became Bragdon by mistake in Rollo Arnold's
book about emigration to New Zealand.]
Brockedon - 4 (Devon) [But Brock may not be a Brog - it's the
wrong Anglo-Saxon root.]
Brogde - 1 (South coast)
Brogder - 5 (London area)
Brogdin - 1 (Berkshire)
Brogdon - 57 (15 in Northumberland; 15 in County Durham; 10 in
West Riding of Yorkshire; 1 in East Riding; 2 in Warwickshire;
1 in Woodstock, Oxfordshire; 1 in Abingdon, Berkshire; 4 in Wantage,
Berkshire)
Brogdew - 3
Brogan - 1009 (but this is not a Brogden variant but a distinct
name from Scotland)
Brogen - 31 (ditto)
Brogg
- 3 (dittoo)
Broggan - 34 - (could this be another variant of Brogan?)
Brogge - 2 (see Brogg)
Broggen - 4 (see Brogan)
Brogham - 2 (ditto)
Brogham - 5 (ditto)
Broghen - 1 (ditto)
- There
are Brogd*ns in England, Wales, Scotland, New Zealand, Australia,
France, Canada, South Africa and the USA.
- If these
are all related to the Brogden family tree, and probably only DNA
will solve the mystery for current descendants, some missing links
may be found. Are the Brogdons in the USA related
to the Northumberland or County Durham Brogdons or
do they descend from Brogdens whose spelling got
changed in the States? The spellings of surnames were often incorrectly
recorded by clerks and vicars, especially in earlier times when many
people could not themselves write. One John Brogden
whose name was spelled correctly in his Oxfordshire church records,
became John Brogdan by the time he emigrated to New
Zealand.
- One
of the many unanswered questions is whether the Oxfordshire Brogdens
were direct migrants from Yorkshire or whether they have a different
ancestry. Much further work needs to be done to find a way to trace
the name before the earliest so far discovered church record of a
Brogden in Oxfordshire notes that George married Elizabeth Brown in
Bampton in 1709. It will be interesting to discover whether it was
his parents or earlier generations who moved there and where they
moved from? (See Research
and Queries)
- A discovery
in the Warwickshire County Record Office database (see www.a2a.org.uk)
is that a John Brogden of Hampton Lucy, Warwickshire, received a quitclaim
(renunciation of any claim against a right to land) from Thomas Denton
of Besselsleigh on 28 March 1547. Besselsleigh was then in Berkshire
but now in Oxfordshire and is close to the area in which the Oxfordshire
Brogdens flourished. This may be a simple co-incidence but Warwickshire
borders Oxfordshire and there are other intriguing references in the
database to Brogdens in the Warwickshire area: Thomas Brogden, a draper,
in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1574; Sir John Brogden, minister, who won
a dispute with King Henry VIII during the dissolution of the monasteries
and had property reinstated; Edward Brogden, "gent" (of
Worcester) in 1547. (Was this Edward related to the Edward (1527 -
1557) who became MP for Worcester? See Brogdens:
Some Characters)
For
news about a proposed DNA testing scheme: Click
Here
See: Brogdens
- some branches for regional information.
Further
articles on general Brogden ancestry to be found in this website:
Click on
the title to view the article
Updated
08/05/06 |