Wadsworth Family History

English (Yorkshire and Lancashire): habitational name from Wadsworth near Halifax, Yorkshire. The placename derives from an Old English personal name Wæddi (genitive Wæddes) + Old English worth ‘enclosure’.

History: William Wadsworth came from England to Cambridge, MA, in 1632, and in 1636 accompanied Thomas Hooker as one of the founders of Hartford, CT. — John Wadsworth (died 1787) was a fellow of Harvard College and is buried in the old burial ground in Cambridge, MA. Peleg Wadsworth, born in Duxbury, MA, 1748, was a revolutionary war general and grandfather of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.