This very unusual surname is locational, and of Olde English pre 10th century origins. It derives from either a lost village of which there are in excess of five thousand known sites, or from the town of Redruth in Cornwall. The basic translation from the Olde English is 'The red ford' from the ancient 'Rhyd-rhudd' although it may also describe the upper ford or even the rough ford. The fact that this surname is well recorded in the London area from the 16th century is significant, London not only being the capital city, but an area where all the local dialects met, resulting in severe distortion of many name spellings. In fact as a good rule of thumb, the further a name travels from its original source, the greater the distortion. In this case examples of the surname include the spelling of Redrope (see below), which might, if recorded two hundred years earlier, have indicated a job, but not by the period in question. These examples include Beja Rudrup who married Joan Webb at the famous church of St Mary le Bone, London, on April 27th 1690, and John Redrup (previously recorded as Redrupp), who married Elizabeth Bickley at St Leonards Church, Shoreditch, on October 14th 1770. He may have been the first to spell his name Redrup. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Anthony Redrope, which was dated November 15th 1588, christened at St Mary Abbotts, Kensington, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1 known as 'Good Queen Bess', 1558 - 1603. 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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