Where did the Hodgetts name come from?
The name “Roger” arrived in England with the Normans in 1066. Saxons had trouble pronouncing the French “R” so “Hogge” became a nickname for “Roger” and “Hogges” meant “son of Roger.”
Spelling was largely dependent on a scribe’s interpretation of what he heard. The name Hodgetts would appear with various spellings for hundreds of years, initially with no ‘d’. Early variations included Hoget, Hogetes, Hogets, Hogeis, Hoges, Hogges, and Hogetus. For readability, the spelling here is standardised to Hodgetts.
While the name sprang up across medieval England, it would become prolific in the Midlands where extensive lands were held by the de Somery family.
Early Hodgetts
These are the earliest known Hodgetts records:
- John Hodgetts was a tenant at Eggington in Bedfordshire c. 1300.
- Thomas Hodgetts of Finham near Coventry witnessed a deed in 1309.
A tax taken in 1327 shows eleven Hodgetts across the midlands, one at Drayton Bassett to the west of Walsall, and ten between Worcester and Stratford-upon-Avon.
Of particular interest here are the Hodgetts around Dudley where the name first appeared that same year. The locations above could indicate the origin of the Dudley Hodgetts family, but they are all some distance away. There is also the possibility that the name arose organically at Dudley itself.
Roger Hogge and some speculation
Roger Hogge of Whittington was fined at Kinver Forest Court in 1271. He may be the original Hogge from whom the Dudley Hodgetts descend. Kinver Forest encompassed the area from Wolverhampton to Whittington and was especially reserved for the king’s hunting pleasure. No one could kill a beast, erect a fence, or use forest timber without his permission. Roger’s fine tells us that he was a land holder, as peasants were gaoled rather than fined. Roger did not own his land outright, he held it from the Lord of Whittington who held it from Roger de Somery. Each owed allegiance to the next up the line, and ultimately to the king.
Roger de Somery’s death in 1273 prompted several “post mortem inquisitions” in which a jury of important local men inquired into his lands and determined his heir. One such inquistion was held at Clent where one of the jurors was “Henry in the Wyke”. The 1327 tax list shows a “Henry in the Wyle” at Clent. I have only seen transcriptions of these records. However, the combinations “ke” and “le” are very similar in medieval script so Wyke and Wyle could easily be transcribed as each other. A second tax was collected in 1332 when Henry Hodgetts appeared on the Clent list, but “Henry in the Wyle” was gone. In 1329 (i.e. between the two tax records) is a plea roll mentioning “Henry de Clent”.
Surnames were still somewhat fluid and varied between hereditary and locational names. It is therefore possible that “Henry in the Wyle” (1327), “Henry de Clent” (1329), and “Henry Hogges” (1332) were all the same person, certainly there was only one Henry taxed at Clent in 1332 (but there were two in 1327). The earlier “Henry in the Wyke” may have been the son of Roger Hogge and father of “Henry Hogges”. While this remains speculative, we now move on to the first positive Hodgetts mentions around Dudley.
What would you like to read next?
You can continue the Hodgetts story in order or jump to a particular person using the Person Index.
Sources & Notes
- Hodgetts Timeline 1
- Royal Forest of Kinver: Heritage Gateway, retrieved 8/8/2026
- 1300s England Edmund King, Medieval England, The British Library, 2001, chp6.
- 1300s Sedgley E.A. Underhill, The Story of the Ancient Manor of Sedgley, p48-59.
- Pardons, Battle of Crecy and Riems
- King, p154
- Brittanica, retrieved 18/7/2022.
- Black Death
- Zvi Razi, Life, Marriage and Death in a Medieval Parish, Cambridge University Press, 1980, pp117-118;
- King, p163.