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Congrieve is a name of ancient Anglo-Saxon origin and comes from the family once having lived near a lane cut through woods or forest. The name is derived from congreave, a Old English word for such a road.
The surname Congrieve was first found in Staffordshire at Congreve, "where the ancestors of this house were seated soon after the Conquest." 1 Congreve is now part of Penkridge, a market town and civil parish as of 1934.
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Congrieve research. Another 140 words (10 lines of text) covering the years 1669, 1670 and 1729 are included under the topic Early Congrieve History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Sound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Congrieve family name include Congreve, Congrave and others.
Distinguished members of the family include William Congreve (1670-1729), and English dramatist and poet. He was "born at Bardsey, near Leeds, where he was baptised on 10 Feb. 1669. He was the son Congreve; his mother's maiden name Browning. His grandfather, Richard Congreve, was a cavalier named for the order of...
Another 51 words (4 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Congrieve Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, Canada, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Early immigrants bearing the Congrieve surname or a spelling variation of the name include: John Congrave and Winifred settled in Virginia in 1635.