I have a strong suspicion that many Hildreth variants maybe related, which is why I highly recommend all men with a variant spelling of the Hildreth name get tested with familytreedna like dozens of Hildreth men already have for over 20 years now. The Hildreth name is very old, and may have started as a first name that descendants chose to honor the ancestor with it as their surname with the introduction of surnames. Many famous variants have existed in Northern England and Southern Scotland. My username for example is the Latin spelling used in church documents for Hildred the Knight, a crusader who fought in the Holy Land and was gentrified by the Norman conquerors to hold lands in Carlisle and surrounding towns. Many believe all his descendants adopted Carlisle as their surname, but I found records of possible descendants named Fitz Hildred and De Hildreton. There were a few people using these surnames in the 1200s. A dispute that arose over Hildred's lands by his descendants during the reign of King John may have adopted his name as their surname to strengthen their claim to his land, unfortunately not enough documentation survives to prove this. Another famous variant is Sir Thomas De Ilderton of Northumberland whose ancestors used Hildreton as their spelling. The oldest known spelling of Hildreth comes from John Hildreth who owned the Manor of Hallikeld in Yorkshire, later is a Rauf Hildreth who owned lands in Yorkshire. The Hildreth surname in its spelling can be found all over England in the 1500s, but its most concentrated in North Yorkshire and Durham.
