Charles Wareing Endell Bardsley

Born in Burnley, Lancashire, in 1843, Charles Wareing Endell Bardsley was an English clergyman and writer with a lasting interest in names, local history, and genealogy. Sources describe him as the son of the Rev. James Bardsley; he was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Worcester College, Oxford, and later served in several church posts, including as vicar of Ulverston.

He is remembered above all for his books on surnames and naming customs. Among his best-known works are Our English Surnames, English Surnames: Their Sources and Significations, Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature, and the large reference work A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, published shortly after his death. His writing combines Victorian scholarship with a real enthusiasm for the stories hidden in ordinary family names.

Bardsley also wrote antiquarian and local-history works, including a chronicle of Ulverston. He died in 1898, but his books have continued to circulate widely, especially among readers interested in onomastics, genealogy, and the social history of Britain.