First Sightings

Etching of Mortlake, circa 1775

From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3790940/18th-century-engravings-showing-villages-London.html)

As for our own branch of the Eldridge family, they had remained relatively sedentary in Southern England, as far as one can tell.

The first definitive sighting of these Eldridges is in Mortlake, Surrey. The Mortlake marriage records for James Eldridge and William Eldridge suggest that they were both born in the late 1750s or early 1760s. It is reasonable to assume therefore that James and William were closely related, and most likely brothers.

The Mortlake records do not however provide any clues as to where they were actually born, or where they originally came from.

William Eldridge was the X2 great-grandfather of Charles Albert Eldridge, and it is with him that the Eldridge line of Charles Albert begins.