Households With A Theaker In Residence At The 1881 Census
The pages linked below are the persons named Theaker in April 1881. The lists are of households with at least one Theaker in residence. The households are listed according to which household contains the oldest Theaker. There were no Theakers listed for any other counties. As always, I may have made some errors so please use this as a guide only and double check anything that you want to rely on.
This exercise shows that Theakers were almost totally from the three counties of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. The Somerset Theakers were originally from within those three counties. Most of the entries for the remaining counties show that the families there also came from those three counties.
London & Middlesex have the same information. Just the way the census infomation was set up I suppose.
If London & Middlesex are viewed as one county (see above) then Theakers are represented in just 13 counties, 3 of which form very much the core. These 3 counties have common borders. Surnames became common sometime around the 14th Century and so the Theaker name had had about five hundred years to spread within England. I see this as compelling evidence for the theory that all Theakers originated from just one source. Who was that original roofer?