Family History

Wadland's in Newfoundland

The earliest records of the Wadland name in Newfoundland date to the 1400's. These were seasonal fisherman who returned to England each year with their salted catch.

In the late Nineteenth Century, William Wadland owned a store on Duckworth Street in St. John's, Newfoundland. When he died, his widow, Harriet Bussell Wadland, carried on the business. Unfortunately, most records prior to William were lost in the fire of 1892.

Their son, William Bussell Wadland was born April 10, 1867 in Newfoundland. He married Eliza Matthews Butler on July 15, 1890. They lived for a while at Duckworth Street and Queens Road. Then, around 1897, they emigrated to the United States and settled in Melrose, Massachusetts. He died January 7, 1948 and was buried in Wyoming Cemetery, Melrose.

There are still descendants of William Wadland living in St. John's. In fact, one family of Wadlands lives on Wadland Crescent in St. John's.

Descendents of William Bussell Wadland

William Bussell Wadland and Eliza Matthews Butler had five children: William Bartlett, Mabel, Henry James Squires, Victor Neal, and Neal Bartlett.

William Bartlett Wadland was born in 1891 in St. John''s Newfoundland. He married Ruby Phipps about 1915 and had 4 children: William, Charles Perley, Nancy, and Janet.

Mabel Wadland was born in 1894 in St John's Newfoundland. She married Rodney Tibbetts who died in 1950. She later married Leon McConnell. Mabel died 1975 in Boca Raton, FL

Henry James Squires Wadland was born January 4, 1893, married Elsie Dolthea Verry on August 30, 1919, and died November 4, 1952. They had three children: Robert Lewis, Philip, and Natalie.

Robert Lewis Wadland married Beatrice Towner Flagg. They had four children: Lawrence Arthur, Carolyn Beatrice, Kenneth Robert and Judith Dianne.

Philip Lawrence Wadland married Jean Bradford. He later married Helen Flanagan Wilder. Philip and Jean had one son, Philip Lawrence, Jr.

Natalie Wadland married Edward Norris. They had two children Pamela and Donald Edward. Natalie later married Robert Vaughan. They had one son Robert, Jr.

Victor Neil Wadland was born in 1896 or 1897. He married Marion Glidden who died in 1965. He later married Frances and died in 1968 in North Carolina.

Neil Bartlett Wadland was born in 1899 in Massachusetts. In 1925, he married Neva Van Alstine in Detroit, Michigan. They had three children: Beverly, Donald, and Barbara. His second wife was Lucille Derouin. Neil died in 1964 in an auto accident in St Petersburg, FL

The Wadlands in Devonshire, England

Our branch of the Wadland family can only be traced to Newfoundland. The records in Newfound were kept in the church and were lost in a fire. Therefore, we can only speculate as to the family history prior to 1892. We do know that these Wadlands came from Devonshire, England but the names have been lost.

One likely explanation of the early Wadland history comes to us from Milo L. Wadlin III of Portland, Oregon who compiled a family history for the Wadlin family:

The family evidently took its name from a small, rural parish in Devon (England) which was called at that time (12th century), Wodelonde, meaning simply “Woodland”. In the 13th and 14th centuries we find such as Sir Walter de Wodelond, Peter de la Wodelonde, and Henry de la Wodelonde. Soon the name underwent various changes, as also did the language in general. The following apparently were all variant forms of that simple name: Wodeland, Wadeland, Wadland, Wadlin, Wadling, Wadelton, and Waddleton, though this is hard to understand, at first.

Somehow, the name of that original parish made it through the changes and is now called Woodland. The family name, for the most part, didn’t make it that far, and the origin of the name, as evidenced by some of the variants, was forgotten. I have theorized that the difference between the spellings of these variants was greater than the difference in the pronunciation used by our predecessors. After taking their name from the place where they lived, this family in turn gave its name to many places where they later lived as they spread out over Devon and Cornwall. In a history of Kilkhampton Parish, the Wadland Family and Manor House of that parish are mentioned. Wad-land in Liskeard, Cornwall, existed from a time before parish registers began (1538). A few fields bearing the name and a Wadeland Cottage survived there into the late 1800’s. Just north of Plymouth, a Wadlands Manor and Meadows may still be found, named for a family that lived there in the 1600’s. In addition, mention of Wadland Barton and perhaps a dozen places named Wodeland may be found in early records.

Maj AJA Wadland, who lives in the UK, writes:

It is believed that de Wadlande nobility arrived in the UK with William the Conqueror. There
is a Battle of Wadland moor and Wadland castle (site only) in Devon.

If you have any further information about any branch of the Wadland family, please let us know. You can write to me at:

Page last modified 05 Jan 2008

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