Cawthra One-Name Study

Cawthra
One-Name Study

Topics

About the Cawthra One-Name Study
Variants
Origin of the surname
Historical occurrences
Frequency of the name
Distribution of the name
Data
DNA project
Contact Details

About the Cawthra One-Name Study

Compared to many of my fellow members of the Guild of One name Studies I am a newcomer to genealogy and to One Name Studies. I had been developing my own family tree for a few years on an intermittent basis and I became interested in the many Cawthra families I had encountered as I searched for my own ancestors. With a realtively uncommon name I began to wonder what the connection might be between my own family and theirs. Towards the end of 2005 I became aware of GOONS and realised that there was a project waiting to be done. This coincided with retirement so I changed one full time job for another and my study of the name Cawthra got under way. Given the anticipated number of Cawthras world-wide I set myself the following objectives which I believe to be entirely in keeping with the guidance provided by GOONS:

1. To identify all Cawthras past and present in all countries

2. To identify the family relationships between and the ancestry of all Cawthras

3. To establish where the Cawthras first lived and when, why and how the Cawthras migrated

4. To discover the origin of the name

The study is of course at the 'Work in Progress' stage but much has been accomplished but much remains to be done - and what remains will present a bigger challenge as inevitably it relies on discovering new information that will be harder to locate.

Variants

The dominant name in the Cawthra family of names is CAWTHRA.

I registered the names CAWTHERA, CAWTHERY, CAWTHERAY, CAWTHRAY and CAWTHEREY as the variant names to be included in the study.

As my work has progressed I have identified other variant names that have had currency over the years. These include CAWTHRY; CAWTHREY; CAWTHRAW; CAWTHROW and CAUTHERY. Many of the Variant names have disappeared from use. The seven names that are now current are:

CAWTHRA; CAWTHERA;CAWTHERAY; CAWTHRAW; CAWTHRAY, CAWTHROW and CAUTHERY

Only the names CAWTHRA and CAWTHRAY have been found outside England.

A large number of deviant names have been found. Why is this so? The majority of our nineteenth century ancestors would have been unable to do other than speak the name (in a variety of local dialects) – many could not write or read or spell, as evidenced by so many who placed just their mark on their wedding certificate. So is it surprising that we find so many different spellings of the name particularly as the name does not lend itself to a single interpretation when spoken. Deviant names that have been widely applied over the years include Cawthara, Cawther, Cawtherah, Cawthrah, Cauthara, Cauthera, Cauther, Cautheray, Cautherey, Cauthery, Cauthra, Cauthraw, Cauthray, Cauthrey, Cauthrow, Cauthry and a number on the same theme with 'ou' or 'ow' instead of 'aw'.

Origin of the surname

As I have discovered there are as many theories of the origin of the name as there are variant and deviant versions of the name itself. But like the name they all revolve around a common core that the name is developed from the name CAWDREY or CAWDRAY. There is also general acceptance of the fact that the name CAWDRA(E)Y was itself brought to England from France. CAWDRA(E)Ys settled widely across England but it is only in West Yorkshire that the name progressed to CAWTH___ by the replacement of the 'D' by 'TH'.

The most generally held view is that the name came to our shores at the time of the Norman Invasion, although some believe it came with the early Huguenot migrants. The most popular view is that the name is derived from 'COUER DE ROI' and that other names such as Corduroy have also evolved from this name. Others point to a village in Normandy, which they suggest is the source of the name. And finally some point to the ancestors in Normandy having been Viking invaders who were persuaded to go to Normandy rather than stay in Paris.

As will be evident the study is presently collating all known theories both plausible and implausible so that thorough study and research can follow in due course.

Historical occurrences

On the whole there appear to have been few truly famous Cawthras.

Perhaps the most prominent were Joseph Cawthra and his family. They migrated from Yeadon Yorkshire, to Canada via USA around 1800 and became a very wealthy and influential family in Toronto. His son William was reputed to be the richest man in Canada and the City today has highways, buildings and schools that carry the Cawthra name.

Joshua Cawthra, born in Liversdege, Yorkshire, whilst a worker in the woollen industry, was an accomplished tenor in the choir at St Peters church in Leeds. He was so well loved and admired that 2,000 people attended his funeral in Leeds in 1856. A monument to him at his grave, erected by his musical friends, contains an inscription of chords and words from Handel's Messiah and has recently been rediscovered in Leeds.

Hermon Cawthra was a famous sculptor, born as Joseph Hermon Cawthra in Shipley in 1886, the son of Silas and Ellen Cawthra. His most famous work is the statuary that is in the Robbie Burns Mausoleum in Dumfries.

James Herbert Cawthra born in Leeds in 1871 became a reputed Electrical Engineer. James was the grandson of Joshua Cawthra the singer. He was responsible for the installation of the tram system in Sunderland and then went to Africa as the Chief Electrical Engineer of the Falls Electric Company, a Company established to develop hydro-power at the Victoria Falls. He has the unfortunate distinction of being the first person to be killed on a level crossing by a train in South Africa.

Frequency of the name

The name Cawthra and its variants appear very infrequently in the UK and in the rest of the world. Even in Yorkshire where the name is reliably believed to have first appeared it is by no means common. In 20 years of life in Yorkshire I only encountered two people with the name, outside my own family. Since then, and prior to commencing the study of my own family's history I have not actually met another person with the name although I had become aware of just two people named Cawthra unconnected with my family.

In the 1841 England and Wales census there were 283 people who held the name Cawthra or one of its variants including all known deviant spellings of the names. A proportion of these were female spouses who acquired the name through marriage.

By 1901 this number had risen to 670. Numbers holding the name outside the UK had grown from very small numbers in 1841 to around 100 by 1900, mainly in USA and Canada.

In the UK in the period 1837 to 2005 there were 2708 births of persons given the name Cawthra or one of its variants and in the same period there were 2491 marriages with perhaps 1200 female spouses acquiring the name. Again taking the UK, IGI lists 500 births of persons given the name Cawthra or one of its variants in the years preceding 1837 and 290 marriages. Allowing for the fact that IGI records cover only a percentage of births and marriages it might be concluded that in the UK there have been some 4,000 persons born with name Cawthra or one of its variants, since the name first emerged, and that some 1700 females took the name on marriage.

It is more difficult to assess the numbers for countries outside UK but a recent 'broad brush' assessment suggested that there might have been a total of around 150 births in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa and 750 in USA and Canada, with perhaps 400 females acquiring the name on marriage.

Thus the total number of births has been around 5,000 with a further 2,000 acquiring the name on marriage.

The present population of living Cawthras and its variant names has not been computed. It is felt that it will be no more than 1,000 persons, including female spouses.

A total of 220 Family Trees have been developed in pursuit of objective 2. These include a total of 3050 people who were given the name Cawthra or one of its variants and 1900 of their spouses (of which 900 might be assumed to be females who have taken the name Cawthra). Given that a high proposrtion of those of the 5,000 who are as yet not placed in Family Trees are those born before 1837 it follows that a high proportion of living Cawthras should therefore be able to identify their ancestry back to the early 1800's should they wish to do so, simply by making contact with the study.

Distribution of the name

At the time of the 1841 census all persons holding the Cawthra and variant names in England and Wales lived in a tight area in West Yorkshire bounded by Bradford, Otley, Leeds, Huddersfield and Halifax. Prior to 1841 there had been modest migration to other countries. Joseph Cawthra had taken his family to Canada and Isaiah Cawthra, coincidentally also from Yeadon, West Yorkshire had gone to USA and Canada in 1840 and his family would follow him to USA in 1842. Both Joseph and Isaiah were clothiers, people who made woollen cloth, and they both developed businesses in Canada and USA and a goodly proportion of the Cawthras in North America are descended from these two families. There was migration of another kind to Australia - several Cawthras were transported to Australia before 1841 as convicted criminals and one of the present families in Australia is descended from one of them.

Large proportions of the Cawthras in West Yorkshire were engaged in farming, in mining or in textiles. Their migration within UK was not a lifestyle choice but in the pursuit of employment and for a very few to exploit business opportunities. Thus we see Cawthras moving to and from the Durham coalfields and into Lancashire (from where they rarely returned!). By the late 19th and early 20th Century the Cawthras moved wider afield to London, Wales and the Midlands but very few to Scotland.

Further external migration took place in the second half of the nineteenth century to USA and in one case to Australia. Around 12 members of one family under Samuel Cawthra emigrated from the Otley area to Nebraska USA in 1881-2. Whilst none of them were from farming stock they became farmers in Nebraska. The railway had arrive just a year or so before their arrival and the homesteaders settled on the Nebraska plains where there were real cowboys and native american tribes and where bison and buffalo roamed. The family later dispersed into Missouri, Colorado, and Kansas and later into California and many of the Cawthras in these US states are descended from this family.

There was further migration in the early decades of the 20th century to Canada, USA, South Africa and Australia but it is the families that migrated in the nineteenth century who have had the biggest impact upon subsequent Cawthra populations in those countries.

Data

Very comprehensive records of all Cawthras and variant names has been collected. All data published on the web has been transcribed into searchable databases. Contact has been made with over 200 people holding the name Cawthra or its variants, of whom a proportion have contributed much information which is now also held as data. The following data on people with the name Cawthra its variants and deviants is held:

The published England and Wales and Scotland Censuses 1841 to 1901

The published USA Federal Censuses 1850 to 1930 (excl1890)

The published Ontario Censuses 1901 and 1911

The England and Wales BMD Indexes 1837 to 2005

BMD Indexes for certain USA and Australian States (but not comprehensive coverage)

The England and Wales National Burial Index

The IGI abstracted birth, christening and marriage records

Boyds Marriage Index

British Vital Records

Published Yorkshire Parish Records

Published Monumental Inscriptions (web based information only)

Selected parish records collected by personal searches of documents (barely scratches the surface I'm afraid)

Information on Military deaths

Complete details of all published passenger records

DNA project

There are no plans to initiate a DNA project in the immediate future

Contact details

For further information, contact:

Mr David W Cawthra
Willow House,
Riverside Close,
Oundle,
Peterborough,
Cambridgeshire
PE8 4DN
UNITED KINGDOM
E-mail:

This page last updated 25 February 2008.