This most interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and may derive from two possible sources. It is most likely to be a metonymic occupational name for a maker of ladles, deriving from the Olde English pre 7th Century "hlaedel", plus the agent suffix "-er". The first element here was first recorded as a surname in 1187 (Nicholas Ladel, in Ekwall's "Some Early London Bynames and Surnames"). The surname may however be a variant of the Scottish "Laidlaw", which is probably a locational name from Ludlow in Shropshire, England, and is said to be a Border surname, largely confined to the former county of Selkirk. It is first recorded here as early as 1296, when one William of Lodelawe was accused of concealing a horse from the English. The surname itself, however, first appears earlier in the 13th Century (see below). Other early examples include: John le Ladeler, mentioned in the Subsidy Rolls of Yorkshire in 1327; and Nicholas Ladelere, listed in 1377 in Huntingdonshire, according to "A Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient Deeds". Isabella Laidler married William Ullithorne on August 9th 1726 at St. Mary's, Castlegate, Yorkshire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Walter le Ladelere, which was dated 1278, in the "Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous", Warwickshire, during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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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