This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/Blh.2ACEB/318 Message Board Post: Anyone interested in tracing their Hedley ancestry should consult the archives of William Percy Hedley, the famous Northumbrian genealogist (Northumberland County Records Office, Melton Park, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne). The Hedleys are a Northumbrian 'Riding' (reiving) family. In brief, all of the 'Hedleys' (spelling is important) descend from the inhabitants of Hedley township, situated to the south of Prudhoe in Northumberland. In the 13th century, William Umfraville, Baron of Prudhoe, resettled many of the inhabitants of Hedley in his Barony of Redesdale (roughly in the Otterburn-Elsdon area) giving them customary lands in exchange Border (military) service, i.e. he held the Barony on condition that he kept it free of Scots and wolves. Thereafter, they were refered to as the de Hedleys, i.e. of Hedley, then simply Hedley. They are the only old Redesdale family not to originate in the dale. Hedley comes from Hedda Leah and is Old English for a clearing or meadow overgr! own with heather. Headley with an 'a' means the leah or meadow at the head (of valley, vale, farm, etc) and the surname originates in the South of England.