This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'at the wade.' 'Wath, a ford. N.E.'(Halliwell). This surname has made such a deep impression upon our registers that there is no need to furnish modern instances. With Wade and Waythe, compare Ford and Forth.

Henry de la Wade, Oxfordshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Johannes atte Waythe, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Alicia de Wath, 1379: ibid.

Hekyn of Wath', 1379: ibid.

(2) Bapt. 'the son of Wade'; v. Wadeson. But (1) is probably the source of most of our Wades.

Andrew Wade, Cambridgeshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Rosa Wade, Cambridgeshire, ibid.

Roger Wade. Rolls of Parliament.

Johannes Wade, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Wade has two distinct origins. One is native Irish i.e. MacWade as a variant of MacQuaid (see Irish Families p. 249) which is sometimes abbreviated to Wade; the other is English derived in some cases from the old-English wadan (to go) and in others from the Norman-French de la wade (of the ford). The former (MacWade) belongs to the Oriel country; the latter is found in all the provinces and is on record in Ireland since the thirteenth century. One of the earliest references to landowners or tenants of the name is to John Wade of Ballymore-Eustace, Co. Kildare, and for some time after that they are to be found in several Leinster counties. When we come to the seventeenth century we meet them also in Co. Waterford: in the “census” of 1659they appear there both as a “principal Irish name” and one also as a titulado-clearly not to be counted in the same category since in 1650 this man was a Justice of the Peace. Another held that position at Kinsale in 1712 at .he time of the presentments of “Papists” under the penal laws. The same diversity existed in Co. Galway: in telling me of certain tenant families of Wade in east Galway Mr. P. J. Kennedy stressed that these are not to be confused with a Cromwellian landlord of the name at Aughrim nearby. Another prominent Cromwellian was Captain Samuel Wade who settled in Ormond; but his family died out within a century. The name Wade is equally prominent among extensive landowners in modern times: de Burgh records them in 1878 in Counties Galway, Roscommon, Cork, Tyrone and Meath. It is with the last that the Wades of this class have been mainly associated, though the testamentary records of dioceses in all parts of the country list many Wade wills and so indicate both their ubiquity and their prosperity. In those of Derry MacWade occurs. The only MacWade in the Elizabethan Fiants was of Co. Cork.

Probably the most distinguished of Irish Wades was Field-Marshal George Wade (1673-1748) who was notable as an engineer as well as a soldier; in other fields Joseph Augustine Wade (1796-1845), composer, and Walter Wade (d. 1825) pioneer in scientific botany are worthy of mention. Father Walter MacWaid, whose name appears in a Fransciscan manuscript as Mac Ubháid, was Observant Provincial, 1567-1587.

(English) 1 Dweller at a Ford [Old English ge)wæd = Old Norse uað, a lord] Will’ de Wade.—Charter-Rolls, A.D. 1199-1200.

Henry de la Wade.—Hund. Rolls, A.D. 1274.

2 the common Anglo-Saxon pers. name Wada, occasionally Wade [from Old English wadan, to go, advance] Wada [weóld] Heelsingum (Wade [ruled] the Haelsings).—Wídsíð (The Traveller), 1. 46.

Wada was the name of one of the ealdormen concerned in the murder of the Northumbrian king Æthelred towards the close of the eighth century.

Andrew Wade.—Hundred Rolls

WADER (English), occurring temp. Edw. I. in Yorkshire as le waider, wayder (as an occupation), seems to have denoted a wading fisherman

In the Oriel counties this is a corruption of MacQuaid, q.v.; elsewhere it is of dual derivation — Old-English and Norman-French-and has been found in all the provinces since tl1e thirteenth century. SIF 151

“Ford” in North English dialect (Wath).

(English) Dweller at the shallow river crossing or ford; descendant of Wada (to advance).

1. Verstegan says, "Wade, of his dwelling at a meadow;" and others make it synonymous with Ford-a water that may be waded. H.R. De Wade, and De la Wade. 2. It is also a personal name. Wade was one of the heroes of Scandinavian mythology, and became the subject of a medieval romance, often referred to in Chaucer and other writers, but now lost. "It appears," says Mr. Wright, "to have related a long series of wild adventures which Wade encountered in his boat, named Guingelot." Wright's Cant. Tales, ii. 93. A Wade or Wada, probably a Saxon, is named in Domesday, as having held lands previously to the Survey.

(Dutch.) From weide, a meadow or pasture.

William, Humphry, Matthew de Vado, Normandy 1180-95 (Magni Rotuli Scaccarii Normanniae); Adam, Andrew, &c. de Wade, Eng. c. 1272 (Rotuli Hundredorum).

A location name in Hampshire.

Wade: a ford.