18
ORIGIN AND CHANGES OF SURNAMES.
mention as a probable indication of consanguinity with the Ridales of that ilk,
that among his bequests occurs "five pounds to the building of the stone bridge
of Tweed, at Rokisburgh," together with "lxxx bordar" and "e bordar" to
the chapel of the B. V. M. at Rokisburgh, besides a "donation to the Abbot
and Convent of Kelkow." (Kelso.)
In the "Correspondence, Inventories, etc.," of the Priory of Coldingham, the
rental shows (1298) "Johannas Rydell" holding two curucates "in domonico"
in Flemington. William de Hylton, the nuns of Berwick, and Matthew de Red-
man are severally recorded as holding lands of the said J. Rydell. Under
Lamberton, in the same rental, "Alicia quæ fuit uxor Johannis Rydell," is
mentioned as having her dower of the third part of Flemington forfeited, "ut
dicitur." Among the witnesses to the solemn excommunication pronounced at
Norham, after the gospel at high mass of the feast of the translation of St.
Cuthbert, 1467, against Patrick Home, Protonotary of our Lord, the Pope, and
John Home, "assertus canonicus" in the collegiate church of Durham, Johan-
nis Ridell is named among the "well-known friends and kinsmen" of the said
Patrick and John, who were present on the occasion. In another of the same
series of documents may be found evidence that seems to point to the descent
of the Ridells of Flemington. It is taken "Ex Institutus, Thomæ Prioris Dun-
elmensis, A. D. MCCXXXV," and mentions among those who owed service to
the Priory of Durham, from Coldinghamshire, "hæredes Galfrid Ridel, et orum
hæredes de Flemington." It is in evidence that Galfridus Ridel was the name
of the contemporary Lord of Blaye, in Aquitaine, whose letters to Henry III,
are in "Royal Letters, Roll Series," under date 1247. The form of the name
then given, and which is the prevailing form in "Gascon Rolls," Galfridus
Rudelli" is suggestive of an eponymous hero, Ruddellus, or Rudel, and not of a
territory the name of which had been taken by its owners.
Nigellus Ridulli
was one of the barons of Gascony, perverted to the king of France by the court
of La Marche. Helias Ridell was one of Henry III's faithful barons and
men, of whom Geoffrey Neville, Seneschal of Poitou and Gascony, makes suppli-
cation in April, 1219. "Galfridus Rydel," "Galfridus Ridelli," and "Gaufridus
Rudelli," such are the forms under which appear the Lords of Blaye (in France),
senior and junior, who bore that Christian name during the reign of Henry III
and Edward II, whose names are found in many public documents in England
and Gascony.
At what date the Roxburghshire family gave their name to their lands is not
precisely known. Walter de Ridale got his lands from David I, between 1124
and 1153, by charter, and these were subsequently denominated the "Baronies
of Riddell and Whitton." Quintin Ridale is the first of this house styled "of
that ilk"; he died in 1471. It will be seen that the family at Berwick-on-Tweed
and others at Flemington, evidently derived from the family of Blaye, used the
prefix "de" with their surname, proving that their possessions in Scotland and
England were called Ridell or Rydale. The several branches of the family seem
to have followed out their early custom of bestowing their own names upon
their lands whenever and wherever acquired, and we have "Cranstown-Riddell,”
"Glen-Riddell," 66 Mount-Riddell," "Minto-Riddell," in Scotland; and "Glen-
Riddle," "Riddle's Banks," "Riddle's Station," "Riddleton," and "Riddle's
Cross-roads," in the United States.
The Norman ancestors held their earldoms for several generations as a dis-
tinct family, before a surname was assumed by them, each successor being known
by his Christian name; but there are abundant evidences to prove that the sur-
