Fothergill Family History

English: possibly a habitational name from an altered form of the placename Faggergill in Arkengarthdale, North Yorkshire. This is recorded in 1280 as Fagardegile (‘sheep enclosure ravine’?) and was presumably the home of Robert de Fagardgill recorded in 1327. Arkengarthdale in Upper Swaledale is not far from Kirkby Stephen, just over the county border in Westmorland, where the earliest example of Fothergill (spelled Fothergall) is found in 1379.

The long-standing social network that existed between Upper Swaledale and Kirkby Stephen families is illustrated by the marriage in 1663 in Grinton parish church of “William Harrison and Alice Fothergill of Mallerstang in the parish of Kirby Stephen.” If this is the correct origin, obscure Fagard has been replaced by Middle English fother or futher, meaning ‘cart-load’ or ‘measure of weight used in selling lead’.

Upper Swaledale and Arkengarthdale were areas of sheep farming and lead mining during the high Middle Ages and subsequent centuries. However, there is no evidence that the placename was ever referred to as Fothergill.