History

Careful analysis of surviving ancient records has, revealed the Gutteridge family to be descended from Anglo-Saxon tribesmen. Historians have studied documents such as the Domesday Book and found the first record of the name Gutteridge in Yorkshire, where they were seated from very ancient times, some say well before the Norman Conquest and the arrival of Duke William at Hastings in 1066 A.D. The earliest mention of the, name was in 1066 as recorded in the Domesday Book

Over time the Gutteridge surname was sometimes spelled Goodrich, Gooderidge, Goodrick, Goodricke, Goodridge Goderich, Godriche, Godric, Godrige, Goderidge, Goodried Gutteridge, Guteridge, Guttridge, Gutridge Gotheridge, and these spelling changes often occurred in records referring to the same person.

Before the 19th century People concerned themselves more with the sound of the name rather that any conventions of spelling.

The Anglo-Saxon ancestors of the Gutteridge family, originally two separate Teutonic tribes, migrated to England from what is now the Schleswig-Holstein region of Germany They settled along the southeastern coast of England in the 5th century. The rival kingdoms established by the Angles and Saxons were unified in the 9th century, and this stronger nation withstood Viking invations for nearly two centuries.

At the beginning of the 11th century the Anglo-Saxons lost the throne to Danish chieftans and, after a brief return in the person of Edward the Confessor, were completely ousted from power by the Normans in 1066.

At this time the Gutteridge family emerged, as notable Englishmen in the county of Yorkshire, where they were recorded as a family of great antiquity seated at Ribstone Hall with manor and estates in that shire. The family branched to the west country to: Herefordshire where it was associated with the with the parish of Gotheridge, and it also branched to Seling Grove in Essex, to the Isle of Ely in Norfolk, and to East Kirkby in Lincolnshire. However, the main stem of the family was in Yorkshire.

The Gutteridge family survived the Middle Ages, despite famine, plagues, and the trials of daily life. However, in the 17th century political and religious upheaval forced many families to leave England.

The newly discovered lands of the Western hemisphere drew people seeking land, riches, religious and political freedom. Migrants bearing the Gutteridge name or a variant spelling of that name, include John Goodrich, who settled in New England in 1630; Thomas Goodrich, who settled in Virginia in 1635; Henry Gutteridge, who settled in Mary land in 1673; Alfred Goodrick, who settled in Philadelphia in 1840; Peter Gutteridge, who settled in Pennsylvania in 1844.

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