Origins of the DUDDEN Family

The Dudden Family lived in and around Timsbury, Somerset from 1819 to the 1880s, when they moved to Westbury on Trym, Bristol. Before settling in Timsbury, their origins are to be found in Cameley, Somerset, about 4 miles west of Timsbury, where members of the family lived from about 1700.

The Dudden family at Wallmead - Timsbury, Somerset (1819-1881)

Wallmead: comments by William (Uncle Bill) Edmondson (1888-1985)

My great-grandmother was Maria Dudden (1860-1947) who married George Edmondson (1861-1943) at Bitton, Gloucestershire on 20 June 1887. She was born at Knowle, Bristol on 26 December 1860, parents William Dudden (1828-1904) and Bessie Coombs (1824-1889). William was from Timsbury, while Bessie was from Nunney, some 10 miles south of Timsbury. In the 1861 census, the family was living in Knowle, while in the 1871 census they were living in Nailsea, Somerset. In 1881, they were back living in the Dudden Family home "Wallmead" at Timsbury. Maria Dudden married in 1887 and moved to Derby, while her parents moved to Westbury on Trym, Bristol.

Maria's grandparents William Dudden (1800-1867) and Maria Parsons (1797-1881) moved to Timsbury soon after their wedding at Paulton (2m SW Timsbury) on 22 Feb 1819, and had all their children in Timsbury. The first mention of the house "Wallmead" is in the 1841 census.

I do not know what my great-grandfather George Edmondson (1861-1943) was doing in Gloucestershire or how he came to meet Maria Dudden. In the 1881 census, George had been living in Peterborough, having left the Yorkshire Dales to work on the railways. When he married Maria Dudden at Bitton, Gloucestershire on 20 June 1887, the marriage certificate said he was living in Derby, where he and Maria subsequently set up home, and where they spent the rest of their lives.

The Dudden family of Cameley, Somerset (1700-1856)

Before settling in Timsbury, the early origins of the Dudden family are to be found in Cameley, Somerset, about 4 miles west of Timsbury. My 3rd great grandfather William Dudden (1800-1867) was born there, as was his father Charles Dudden (1762-1856), his father Charles Dudden (1732-1788), and most probably his father John Dudden, born around 1700. Although William Dudden left Cameley in 1819 to live at Timsbury, his grandfather Charles Dudden lived there until his death aged 95 in 1856.

John Lomas
10 September 2022