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Around 1572 in France, the
Family were being persecuted for their religion
They were of the Protestant faith known as "Huguenots"
They escaped by boat down the River Seine in the middle of the
night, setting course for England
Their first port of call could have been the Isle of Wight
Eventually, around 1753, they finally settled in Birmingham Warwickshire
England and before then they were in the Hampshire Area
There is a chart showing the various areas where the Coudrey
families lived between 1587 and 1788, which Walter Knowles compiled
in 1996
The Coudrey name as spelt today, but back in the
"Old Days" it was spelt Cowdrey / Cawdrey / Cowderoy
/ Cowry
All these spellings were recorded in England from 1587 to 1788
Click here to read a brief history of the "Huguenots"
which explains why the Coudrey Family moved from France to England
Other Information
We can safely assume that some
Coudrays went to England under the banner of Robert
de Beaumont in 1066
We can also safely say that some of them were still there in
1207, as was reported by the Duchess of Cleveland after a meticulous
search and by Bardsley in various spelling variations after 1297
The Battle Abbey Roll, a
scroll of names initially constructed in 1338, was reconstructed
by Sir Anthony Browne about 1539, probably when the original
roll was found during a reconstruction of the Battle Abbey Gatehouse
Its scroll was initially thought to be a list of men who accompanied
William
the Conqueror as leaders in the Battle
of Hastings in 1066
By others, it is thought to designate what families in England
came over with the Conqueror
The Duchess of Cleveland used Holinshed's version of the Roll
as a basis of her list, published as "Battle
Abbey Roll with Account of Some Norman Lineages" by
John Murray in 1889
She found in her research the names of Coudray, Cowdray, and
Couderie in 1207
She found in the Duchesne listing of scroll itself the name Couderay
According to Howard Corddry, the family is well documented as
of French origin under the name of 'Coudray', living in the Loire
Valley in the 11th century or earlier
This family name is still represented by place names and by chateaux,
at least seven of them scattered over an area of some thirty
five miles radius centered about ten miles south of Saumur
There is some uncertainty about the exact age and initial ownership
of an ancient tower called the Tour
du Coudray which is part of the Fort du Coudray
at the Castle
of Chinon, an outstanding feature in the area
There is a Chateau le
Coudray (below) near Seuilly, four miles
southwest of Chinon also in the Saumur region
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... Abraham Darby
I was the first, and most famous, of three generations with that
name in an English Quaker family that played an important role
in the Industrial Revolution and click 