Rutledge Family History & Genealogy
Rutledge Last Name History & Origin
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Name Origin
The name Rutledge itself has had many different spellings, as there were no spelling rules when the name came about. The name itself means "red boggy water" which infers that the original people lived in rural areas.
Spellings & Pronunciations
Rutledge, Rutlidge, Ruthlidge, Ruthledge, Ritlidge, Rutletge
Nationality & Ethnicity
The origin of the Rutledge name is not specifically known although it has been linked to both German and Scottish roots. There have even been stories of a Rutledge clan known to cause problems for Anglo-Saxon nobility, refusing to reliquish valuable land to the rich. These stories tell of farmland folk fighting back with pitchforks and makeshift spears, causing so much raucous that the nobles abandoned their quest to expand borders into the Rutledge lands simply because of the trouble.
Famous People named Rutledge
Edward Rutledge (Dec.8 1798-Jan.23 1800) was the youngest person to sign the American Declaration of Independence.
Ann Rutledge (Jan.7 1813-Aug.25 1835) was the rumored first love of Abraham Lincoln.
Early Rutledges
These are the earliest records we have of the Rutledge family.
Rutledge Family Photos
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Rutledge Family Members
Rutledge Family Tree
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Rutledge Death Records & Life Expectancy
The average age of a Rutledge family member is 70.5 years old according to our database of 10,618 people with the last name Rutledge that have a birth and death date listed.
Life Expectancy
Oldest Rutledges
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This area so long in dispute between the English and the Scots was settled before the Norman Conquest as part of the ancient Kingdom of Northumbria by the Angles. The people of this part of the Border in time came to be organized into tribes or clans. This was the land of freebooters and raiders. "These trackless and desolate regions", he says, "were notorious for the activities of troopers before the Union" in 1603. This land was "no other thing but theft, reiff, and slaughter", until the boundary was finally agreed upon in 1552. John Lang in his Stories of the Border Marches refers to "the wild men of Bewcastle".
For many centuries Carlisle and Bewcastle township were within Scotland. The township is now in England in the County of Cumberland along the present border, on high land, an area of rolling hills. Anciently, Bewcastle was the site of a Roman Fort or Station. In 1470 Edward IV granted the manor and castle, which had long lain waste, to his brother, the Duke of Gloucester, then Lord Warden of the Western Marche. He sublet the area to Cuthbert Rutlege, John Rutlege, Robert Elwold (Elliot) and Gerald Nickson (Nixon). The remains of a pele tower, or castle, still stand and the old church of St. Cuthbert is kept in good repair.
Undoubtedly, the earliest known location of the Rutledges was on the Bailey Water, at Kershopefoot, at Masthorne and between Kershopefoot and the Leven (now the Line) waters, all nearby places "within the Rule of Bewcastell". The Kershope burn is now part of the modern boundary line between the two countries.
For more on the origin of the Rutledge surname, please visit: [external link]~rutledge/origins.htm
You may also want to visit The Rutledge Family Association Website at:
[external link]~rutledge
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