Member of the Guild of One-Name Studies  

January 2014 added a new "Yorkshire " section with Calder Valley trees


 

In Yorkshire, we find a wide distribution of the name Speght/Speyght/Speight from the east coast at Burton Fleming near Bridlington, across to Halifax in the West Riding, by the time of the first surviving parish registers. By the mid  1500's this  sometimes  modifies to Speake. It would appear that the name here has its derivation from the Old English,  and  not from the Norman French "Espec" of Walter Espec.

The Speak families were strongly represented in the West Riding of Yorkshire, especially the parishes of Halifax and Heptonstall, the Calder Valley. Before 1700, I have found no evidence of any significant migrations of SPEAKE families from these two areas within the UK. The Speakes in Shropshire and Lancashire appear to have been tenant farmers rather than freeholders. In Yorkshire some Speake families were associated with the woollen and cloth trades from at least 1612, when William Speake of Gisburn is recorded as "Tailor". Also in 1636, Abraham Speeke was a clothier at Heptonstall.

Post 1700 -

Steam power was also finding application in the spinning and weaving trades of Lancashire and Yorkshire, transforming them from their previous "cottage industry" origins to largescale industries in the rapidly expanding towns of Bradford, Rochdale, and Leeds, which saw a rapid rise of population as labour was drawn in from the surrounding country areas. By the late 19th century, members of the family are listed as Worsted Manufacturer, of Bradford; Weaver of Heptonstall; Woolcomber of Keighley - showing migration to the industrial centres.

UPPER CALDER VALLEY

In the late 19th century at least two families emigrated to Australia and New Zealand from the Halifax area and at least one family from Lancashire. Please view the "Australia and New Zealand" pages for more information

SPEAKE Surname Distribution today:

Although the 20th century has seen the break up of the closely knit family groups which characterised the  previous  centuries,  it  is  surprising that even today in the UK that the old distributions remain largely unaltered. It  came  as  a surprise to me that in the UK , how regional the variations of the name spelling were. 66% of all SPEAK families are located in NE Lancashire and West Riding Yorkshire, but only 5% occurr in Shropshire, Wales and the West Midlands. For SPEAKE, the situation is reversed; only 12 % in NE Lancs/WR Yorks, 38% Shropshire /Wales/West Midlands. For SPEKE, the figures  are more pronounced; 7% and 36% respectively.

 


This Speake Family History website focusses on the British Isles and emigrants from there

These emigrants found their way all over the world, and there are pages on this site giving more information to these main areas. (more)

All people with Shropshire origins have been allocated unique codes to identify them and also allow links in my Relational Database. (more)

 

       
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