This unusual and interesting name has two possible origins, the first of which is an Anglo-Saxon topographical name denoting someone who lived by a road or a watercourse. The derivation is from the Olde English pre 7th Century word "lad", itself derived from the verb "laedan", to lead, or to go. Where the word "lad" is an element of a placename it usually refers to a man-made drainage channel. The second possible origin is from the medieval occupational surname for a carrier or carter, derived from the Middle English "lode(n)" to carry or transport, derived from 'lad' as above influenced by "lade(n)", to load. There are a number of variants of the modern surname, Loader, Loder, Load(e)s, and Load(s)man. Examples of the surname recordings include Annys Loadman, the daughter of Robert Loadman, christened at the famous church of St. Botolph without Aldergate, London on July 15th 1610, and Isabell Loadman who married Henry Hancocks at St. James Church, Dukes Place, London on April 8th 1685. Whilst Elinor Loadsman married one John Hicks at the same church on November12th 1689. In the early records it would seem that the spellings as Loadman and Loadsman were interchangeable! The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Emma la Lodere, which was dated 1279, in the "Oxfordshire Hundred Rolls", 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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