Edon is a name whose history is connected to the ancient Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain. The name is derived from when the Edon family once lived in the region of Eden in Durham. The surname Edon is a topographic surname, which was given to a person who resided near a physical feature such as a hill, stream, church, or type of tree. Habitation names form the other broad category of surnames that were derived from place-names. They were derived from pre-existing names for towns, villages, parishes, or farmsteads. Other local names are derived from the names of houses, manors, estates, regions, and entire counties. As a general rule, the greater the distance between an individual and their homeland, the larger the territory they were named after. For example, a person who only moved to another parish would be known by the name of their original village, while people who migrated to a different country were often known by the name of a region or country from which they came.
The surname Edon was first found in Suffolk. Hellaby Hall in Stainton, in the West Riding of Yorkshire was an ancient mansion on the property of Sir R. J. Eden, but is now a farmhouse. [1]
Some of the family have recently branched to Windleston in Durham. "It comprises by computation 1250 acres, and has been long the property of the Eden family, of whom Sir Robert Johnson Eden, Bart., rebuilt Windleston Hall about twenty years since [(1860s.)] " [1]
West Auckland in Durham also had some early records of the family. "The place gives the title of Baron to the family of Eden, who formerly resided here: the estates now belong to Sir R. J. Eden, Bart." [1]
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Edon research. Another 92 words (7 lines of text) covering the years 1270, 1521, 1576, 1521, 1535, 1544, 1544, 1546 and 1645 are included under the topic Early Edon 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 Edon family name include Eden, Edin, Edden, Edens and others.
Distinguished members of the family include Richard Eden (1521?-1576), English translator, born in Herefordshire about 1521, and studied at Queens' College, Cambridge, 1535-1544, under Sir Thomas Smith; he held...
Another 28 words (2 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Edon Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Some of the Edon family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt. More information about their life in Ireland is included 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 Edon surname or a spelling variation of the name include: