In the 14th century there were already Scaddings living
in Cornwall, Devon and Somerset in England. Names have been
variously recorded as Scadden, Scaddon, Scaddinge, Scading
and several other variations. The spelling is not regional
and appears to be the whim of the recorder at a time when
literacy was not common among the working people. The family
recorded on these pages eventually settled on the spelling
Scadding.
The earliest member traced came from Pitminster, a small
village just south of Taunton in Somerset where they were
most likely agricultural workers on one of the nearby estates.
By the late 1600s James,
the son of a Quaker, was a butcher in Pitminster and some
other Scaddings had moved to Taunton. When the Duke of Monmouth
claimed the Crown of England in Taunton in 1685 there were
Scaddings who followed his cause. Richard of Taunton, Nicholas
and John of Pitminster, and George were subsequently accused
of following Monmouth as was the young daughter of a Mr Scadding.
In the mid 1700s James' son and daughter-in-law, Joseph
and Susanna, took their large family to Ilchester where
Joseph, and later one of his sons, took the post of gaoler
at Ilchester Gaol. One of Joseph's grandsons became the
Coroner of Somerset and
another became a successful solicitor
with both branches subsequently moving to London.