This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'at the ridge-way,' i.e. the road over the back of the hill. A Cheshire family so called ramified strongly.

Lucia atte Rugewey, Somerset, 1 Edward III: Kirby's Quest.

Johannes de Rygeway, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

John del Ruggeway, Cheshire, 1355: East Cheshire.

Hugh Ridgeway, Cheshire, 1577: ibid.

1560. Buried — Katerine Ridgeway: Reg. Prestbury Ch., Cheshire.

1572. Married — Roger Rydgewaye and Ellen Getscare: ibid.

James Ridgway, of Offerton, 1594: Wills at Chester.

This name came to Ireland in the person of Sir Thomas Ridgeway (d. 1631), later first Earl of Londonderry, who came of an old Devonshire family. He was a member of the Council of Ireland in 1606 and took a very active part in the organization of the Plantation of Ulster: he obtained for himself 2,000 acres in Co. Tyrone and a relative also acquired a large estate in Co. Cavan at the same time. His nephew Capt. John Ridgeway was very prominent in opposition to the 1641 insurgents. As an Ulster family they died out, but a younger branch settled in Queen's Co. in the seventeenth century. Two of these appear in the “census” of 1659-60 as tituladoes in Kilkenny city. They later became influential in Waterford-an interesting account of the very extensive export trade of Henry Ridgeway from that port for the year 1792 will be found in Analecta Hibernica, No. 15 (p. 376). The name is not at all numerous but is still found in Counties Dublin, Leix (Queen's Co.) and Cork. Sir William Ridgeway (1853-1926).

archaeologist and scholar, and William Ridgeway LL.D. (1765-1817), author of State Trials in Ireland, were two men of distinction.

(English) Dweller at the Ridge-Way [Old English hrycgweg]

This family came to Ireland in connexion with the Plantation of Ulster under which they obtained large estates in Cos. Tyrone and Cavan. Branches of the family later settled in Co. Leix and Co. Waterford. It is now rare in Ulster but well known in various parts of Leinster and Munster. SIF 131

(English) Dweller at the way, or road, along a ridge.

The extinct baronet family, created Lords Londonderry in Ireland, traced their pedigree to 6. Edw. IV., when Stephen Ridgeway was one of the stewards of the city of Exeter. There are two places in Devonshire called Ridgeway, one near Honiton, and the other near Plymouth, but from which of these the family sprang is unknown. In the early generations, the family wrote themselves Ridgeway alias Peacock.