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Dwight - Name

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According to the famous Victorian etymologist Canon Bardsley, this is a surname which 'caused much trouble' to researchers. Certainly in the hundred years or so since Charles Bardsley's death, the task of identifying the origin of Dwight does not seem to have advanced greatly. This is quite unusual given that access to records is so much greater than in previous times. It would seem that the most likely origin is as a 'fused form' of the early personal name Dionisia, which has come down the centuries as the surnames Dyet, Dyon, Dion, Dyot and Diot. It is from the latter two examples that Bardsley deduced that the modern Dwight originates. This seems to be correct as in the surviving church registers of St Peters Cornhill in the city of London we have the recording in 1634 of William Dwoit. He was given as being a candle maker, and a witness at the christening of his daughter Elizabeth. Only a year later and in the same church, we have the recording of Marye, given as being the daughter of one William Dweyghte, again a candle maker, and clearly the same father. These recordings would seem to show the development of the surname taking into account the huge vagaries of spelling, even within the same registers. In the next century we have the recording of Jane Dwight who married James Clogh at St Georges Chapel, Hanover Square, Westminster, in 1767.