The origins of the Gillard family are from the village of Drayton in Somerset and the name seems to have derived from Gaylard through to Gailard and finally Gillard, though how much is through evolution and how much due to the spelling interpretation of the local clergy we do not know. We believe our earliest ancestor to be Samuel Gaylard, born in the 17th century.
The family did not move far from the villages of Drayton, Hambridge and Curry Rivell until Thomas Gillard moved his family to Weymouth in Dorset and William Thomas Gillard moved the family to Bristol in the 1890’s and subsequent generations have spread the family further still. Thomas’ wife met and eventually cohabited with another man leading to the family’s first recorded divorce in 1899.
Occupations included agricultural labouring but also reflected local trades such as basket making, eel fishing and glove making although the predominant trade of the latter generations was stone masonry and brick laying.
The link with the Male family was forged via William Thomas’ marriage to Jane Male from a neighbouring village. There were many inter-family marriages in the villages of Somerset and there are many instances of Gillard’s marrying Male’s, although not all familial links have been identified yet.
The link to the Read family is through the marriage of Bertram George’s marriage to Agnes Louise Read.
There are many examples of the family non conformism (largely Methodist, as would be expected in the South West stronghold) with couples marrying in Methodist chapels and Thomas’ sons declaring they were Methodists in the Canadian census after they had emigrated.
Other key families who are our ancestors and are linked to the Gillard’s are: the Coate family from Somerset ; the Donne family from Drayton, Somerset and the Dinham family from Stocklinch, Somerset .
Common family names are Arthur, Job, John, Thomas, William, Ann and Mary.
No distant relatives of this family have been traced, but we know four siblings emigrated to Canada at the beginning of the 20th Century.
Gillard / Wood Family History 