THE MUDDLE FAMILIES

THE LINEAGE & HISTORY OF THE MUDDLE FAMILIES OF THE WORLD

INCLUDING VARIANTS MUDDEL, MUDDELL, MUDLE & MODDLE

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MODERN DISTRIBUTION OF THE NAME

There are about 1400 people in the World who currently go by the name Muddle or one of its variants, such as Muddel, Muddell, Mudle or Moddle. Of these about 600 live in England, 600 in Australia, 100 in America, 50 in Canada, and less than 10 in both New Zealand and South Africa. For all these people the origin of their name is in South-East England, as discussed in the above section on the origin of the name.

In the 1871 census there were about 230 people with the name Muddle and its variants living in England; in the 1881 census it was 350; in the 1891 census it was 420; and in the 1901 census it was 470.

An analysis of the births registered in England, for all variants of the name, from the start of registration in mid-1837 to 1899 shows that there were a total of 594 births, which gives an average of 9.5 per year. The table below shows a breakdown of this total by county with the range of dates during which there were births in that county.

Muddle and variants

Births from 1837 to 1899 by county as recorded in GRO registrations

The table and maps show the dominance of Sussex during the 19th century, with all the Sussex births being in the east of the county near to the origin of the name. The next largest groups were in adjacent counties, with a rapid tailing off in numbers with distance from Sussex. These more distant births also tend to be of a later date as people moved about more with the coming of the railways. The births in London and Surrey have all proved to be in family lines that originated in Sussex, Kent or Dorset, and shows the magnetic pull that a large city has on the population of the surrounding area. The Muddles in Dorset had just about died out in their own county by the time of the start of registration.

Of the Muddles in Australia, the majority being in NSW, about 80% are descendants of one family from the ‘Buxted Muddles’ who migrated in 1838. About another 15% are descendants of a family from the ‘Ardingly Muddles’ who migrated the same year. The rest are a scattering of later arrivals.

Of the Muddles in Canada, just about all of them are from migrations made by members from two separate branches of the ‘Buxted Muddles’ just before the First World War.

Of the Muddles in the USA, the majority stem from two migrations, one in the late 1830s by three brothers and their families from Uckfield, Sussex, who were members of the ‘Framfield Muddles’ and settled in New Jersey, and the other in the mid-1840s to mid-1850s by three bachelor brothers from Lenham, Kent, who were members of the 'Harrietsham Muddles' and settled in New York State.

An interesting point is that in those branches of the family that had moved away from the core area in Sussex before the 16th century to Kent, Dorset etc. the name Muddle and its variants seems to have almost completely died out by the 20th century, with the exception of a few members of these families that had moved back nearer to the core area: the holders of the name Muddle and its variants in the 20th century being almost exclusively from the three Sussex families that had stayed near the core area until the 19th century. It seems as if a name moving away from its core area seems to get swallowed up by the more dominate local names of the area that it has moved to. This conclusion seems to be upheld by the fact that the one, admittedly later, migration that has flourished is the one to Australia in the 19th century resulting in there now being a similar number of holders of the name there as back in the origin area. Presumably this is because there were no long established local names that could overwhelm it and the name started on an equal footing with other immigrant names. It would be interesting to know if a similar conclusion can be drawn from the history of other names that have a limited origin location.

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