This interesting and curious surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from a place called Higher Ridihalgh in the county of Lancashire. The placename is composed of the initial element "hreod", the Olde English word meaning reed, and the second element the Olde English "halh, healh", a corner of land, hough or recess. During the Middle Ages, when migration for the purpose of job-seeking was becoming more common, people often took their former village name as a means of identification, resulting in a wide dispersal of the name in a number of variant forms. Variants of the name in the modern idiom include Ridealgh, Ridehalgh, Redihalgh, Reddihough, Reddyhoff, and Reedyhough. The surname itself is first recorded in the early 14th Century (see below), while Robert del Riddyough appears in 1397, in "The Rolls of Burgesses at the Guilds Merchant of the Borough of Preston". The latter source also records Edward Riddihough, Riddihalgh in 1682. John Riddiough married Lucy Pollard on October 17th 1774, at St. Nicholas' Church, Liverpool. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William de Redihalgh, which was dated 1324, in "Some Court Rolls .... of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster", during the reign of King Edward 11, known as "Edward of Caernafon", 1307 - 1327. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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