My brother and I started looking at our ancestry back in the mid 1960s, shortly after our grandmother died. Our father was her executor and we were fascinated with Grandma's names. Beatrix Marion Codgbrook ALLEN. We gathered that her maiden name was "Westerdale" which is another very unusual name. I joined the Guild of One Name Studies in 1980 and registered both of these family names. These were the early days of family history and we had to work hard extracting all the references to Codgbrook and the many variants. Somerset House was visited many times, and Chancery Lane for Census data. These all entailed visits to the London depositories.

Our analysis showed very clearly that Codgbrook was centred on the County of Northamptonshire. Luckily we lived quite close to Northampton and we spent loads of weekends exploring the archives as well as the various parishes located in the County.  Clearly after around 55 years research we have gathered data from many countries and have visited the USA, Australia and New Zealand gathering as much information as possible and endeavouring to assemble the many family lines that arose. 

The many websites that exist today (2020) have incredible amounts of data available and we really appreciate the thousands of dedicated people who have spent huge amounts of their voluntary hours digitising, transcribing and indexing. These have all been trawled and if any new data is found that is added to the database and pedigrees. Our earliest reference to the name is to Ernaldo of Cold Ashby in Northamptonshire in 1170.

We knew pretty quickly that the rather strange name of Codgbrook would challenge those who had to record the name in the days when being able to write was rare. The obvious insertion of "e"s made it "Codgebrooke". Extracts from the published Patent Rolls and Close Rolls gave us dozens of references to individuals from the early 13th century right up to the beginning of parish registers in 1538.

Local accents and the lack of writing skills leads to all sorts of spellings and so far we have gathered over eighty different spellings. The largest number of variants are contained in the spellings "Causbrook" and "Scotchbrook". Data for these names has been collected and we have assembled scores of pedigrees. Others of the more common spellings are Cotsbrock, Cosbrook, Cotchbrook, Cotesbrouke and Kosbrocke. All of these come with the random addition of "e"s !

This is simple. The village of Cottesbrooke" in the north of Northamptonshire is the clear origin. I have come across an entry in one parish register where it tells us that a person getting married originated in "Codgbrook". This register was for a small town which had a Codgbrook family. I also have a 17th century will where the name is carefully written at the start as "Cotsbrook" , but by the end of the will when confidence in the spelling was building we would read it as "Codgbrook". The "t" had been looped upwards and the "s" had similarly been looped downwards.

Adam de Cotesbroke was Member of Parliament representing Northampton from 1332 and was Mayor of Northampton from 1337 to 1340. As with all sorts of early records the best mentions are when the law is broken and records of assaults, not paying taxes, and stealing of horses. These all abound in early mentions!

The name Codgbrook is extremely rare. In 55 years research my database contains only 1800 pieces of data with all spellings. Out of deference to those who might be sensitive about being contained in a database it only includes those individuals up to and including 1850. I obviously have datasets with more up to date information and pedigrees right up to date.

Currently there are only two male individuals to carry on the name "Codgbrook". The spelling Scotchbrook is far and away more common, but that is relative as even then there are not that many.  

As with most names the family names have spread far and wide. The Codgbrook spelling is located mainly from Northampton and to the Eastern side of that County. The spelling Scotchbrook arose in the early 19th century in North East Northamptonshire and Rutland. The spelling Causbrook is located to the Western side of Northamptonshire and to North Oxfordshire. I have pedigrees covering New Zealand, Australia and much of the USA. All through known emigration.

As mentioned above I have masses of data from every source available including Parish registers , Censuses, Probate Records etc.

As the name is so rare I have no use of DNA. I know of some three individuals who bear the name but in the general rule of things they have none of the Codgbrook genes.