Edwin name meaning
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(I’ve never heard anyone here say it that way, though). There is, as with many words of Gaelic origin, vast confusion over how the name “Ruthven” is pronounced. Ruthven has a dual meaning in Scotland as both the name of a clan but also the name of a place meaning “red river”. In a more clinical search for the meaning and origin of the names “Edwin” and “Ruthven” we find them to come directly from Scotland.Įdwin was the name of a 7th century King, the first Christian conqueror in Scotland who was famous and beloved - and for whom the city of Edinburgh gets its name. And in the grand scheme of things in relation to family history it may in fact not be all that important. Electa was born in 1802 - so she would have been a teen right at the height of popularity for the book in the US (it was a sensation in Europe before coming to America).Ĭan we be sure this is the true origin of Edwin’s name? I’m betting on Electa, at this point, given the romantic nature of the book and the fact that it appears to have been so popular with teenage girls. The question in my mind is who was caught by its charms - was it Alexander or Electa? (Or both?) The book is based in 14th century Scotland and details in a romantic and suspenseful fashion the heroic adventures of Sir William Wallace, Robert the Bruce, and - Edwin Ruthven. I’ve never read it but the book very much was an influence to youthful readers in the early 19th century in the ways that movies are an influence today. In 1809 a historical novel by the title of The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter was published and it became wildly successful.
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In trying to answer that question we have found that the name “Edwin Ruthven” was quite popular in the 19th century.Ī quick search of Google or Family Search reveals thousands of uses of the name, mostly from this time period. So family is likely not the influence in naming the first child of Alexander and Electa. (And, obviously he didn’t have text, email or Skype).Īlexander married the sister of his sister Olive’s husband, Electa Beal - and I’m guessing if he had much of a sense of family at all it came from this association and that of the Beal family. In 1821 both Amos and Ruth died within weeks of each other, leaving Alexander seemingly alone in the wilderness without much connection to the old family home in Sheffield, Massachusetts or the growing homestead of his uncles in Eastern Canada. Records just say he was born “about 1798” and Canada is where most assume the family was based upon the census records found from the early 1790s for Amos and Ruth.Īlexander was clearly with Amos and Ruth in Ohio when they got there around 1815. Most researchers feel he was born in Canada, though no official birth records exist that confirm 1798 as the actual year of his birth or the place of birth. Unlike his father he was separated while quite young with most Westovers he may have known:Īlexander was one of the younger children of Amos and Ruth and he was born, it appears, during the transitory years of the Amos Westover family migration to Ohio. One of the lingering questions in our minds is how disconnected Alexander Westover himself may have felt from the Westover family. Well, there’s no crime in that and we suppose the reasons are clear enough. In fact, in looking at the names Alexander and Electa chose for all their children we cannot find a Westover family connection: Edwin Ruthven, Albert, Charles Beal and Oscar Fitzland have no connection within Westover history whatsoever. There isn’t an uncle or a distant cousin that we can find who would influence the naming of a baby born in 1824. In researching we have found that while we can find plenty of Edwin Westovers in both America and in England in the 18th and 19th centuries we cannot find a connection to our branch of the Westover family. There has to be a reason for this, right? Where did it come from and why did Alexander and Electa choose that name for their first born son? In researching an upcoming video on the life of Edwin Ruthven Westover we have been a bit hung up on his name. There is also plenty use of the names Jonas or Jonah, William, and, of course, Gabriel. Tradition within the Westover family for centuries has been the re-use of common first names.