General background on the Heddles
Hello, I just stumbled on the forum tonight when I was idly searching on the name Heddle. I notice that some people are wondering about the basics of the name, so I thought I would just add what I believe to be the case. The name stems from the Old Norse meaning "hay valley" and there are place names corresponding to this in the Telemark region of Norway (Heddal) and also in Orkney, where the Heddal has become the Heddle that we know and love. Orkney is a group of islands off the North coast of Scotland that was taken over by the Vikings in approx. the 10th century, and remained under Norse control until the 15th, when they were pawned (along with Shetland) to the King of Scotland as part of a wedding dowry, but never redeemed. For more information on Orkney, I strongly commend you to visit the superb www.orkneyjar.com for a history of the islands, and excellent links section, and also www.orknet.co.uk and www.orcadian.co.uk, the website of the local newspaper. Anyway, the area of Heddle is in the vicinity of Finstown in the West Mainland of Orkney, where my family lived, until my father made the move 7 miles east to the main town of Kirkwall.
From the point of view of the name, in Orkney the patronymic system of the Vikings gave way to adopting the name of your tunship, so the inference is that who became the Heddles were originally Viking adventurers who established a township in Orkney and subsequently took it as their name. Certainly J Storer Clouston in his records of the Earldom of Orkney includes the Heddles as one of only 12 'roithman' families, with roith meaning the right of redemption of property under Udal Law. Udal Law still applies in the case of rights to the shoreline in Orkney and Shetland, but unfortunately has been generally superceded by the Scottish feudal system.
The links I've mentioned give much more background, but for names and dates from Orkney parish records, go to the Orkney genealogical site at www.cursiter.com, created by Walt Custer (General Custer was also of Orkney stock, with the Cursiter name being pronounced locally as Custer). There is a section relevant to the Heddle name, current to the early 20th century, with these details I believe from the Mormons' databases.
Hope this is helpful, and give me a shout if there is anything you think I can help with.
Cheers,
Steven