Recorded in several spellings including Load, Loade, Loads, Loades, Lode, Lodman and Loadman, this is an English surname. It is residential or possibly on occasion, job descriptive, for a person who lived or worked by a 'lad'. This was an Olde English pre 7th century word which later developed into the modern form of lode. 'Lads' were usually a rocky area where minerals specifically lead, were to be found in cracks in cracks and crevises. By the 16th century the word as lode usually referred to a watercourse or underground tunnel or shaft which worked the minerals. It is not clear when the surname first developed, but in the year 1273 in the county of Somerset, an area where a lot of early mining took place, the recording of 'Robert atte Lode' is found in the documents known as 'Kirby's Quest', and John atte Lode in Sussex in 1327. Later recordings taken from authentic surviving church registers include examples such as: William Load of Worcester, who in 1753 married Elizabeth Read of London at St Georges chapel, Mayfair, whilst in 1769, Thomas Load and Sarah Sqibb were married at the same church. As Loadman or occasionally Loadsman, the name seems to refer to a carrier of lead. John Lademan being recorded in Yorkshire in 1301 and Petronilla Lodman in Colchester in 1327.

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