Guild of One-Name Studies
One-name studies, Genealogy
Study: Pegler
Variants: Pedler, Peglar
Category: 2 - A study where research using core genealogical datasets and transcriptions is well under way, but currently in some countries only.
Contact: Mr Andy Stevens
The Pegler surname is a reoccurring name throughout my family tree with different grandparents and great grandparents marrying into different stems of the Pegler family as well as first and second cousins.
My aim is to try and prove how these stems are linked and to document the wider family who overtime have spread out from Gloucestershire to North America, Australia, New Zealand and beyond.
Study Update April 2026
I have so far documented 4,756 individuals with the Pegler / Peglar surname.
The most time consuming part has been reconstructing all the Pegler / Peglar families from the BMD records (1837-1930) then connecting them to the 1841-1921 census records, 1939 register and locating the correct marriage, death and burial records.
The top levels of these family stems have then been traced back a further 2-3 generations using a combination of parish records and the 1841-1861 census records and further extended to include non-conformists and descendants born in North America and Australasia.
When this part of the study is completed (≅93% currently) it will enable anyone who has grandparents or great grandparents born in the 1920’s to trace back their family history to their 7-8 times great grandparents.
The next phase of the study will take these stems back another 5 or more generations to the mid-17th century using a combination of parish records, wills and manorial records.
If you have copies of original birth, marriage or death certificates and are happy to provide scans or photographs of these documents please contact me via email at pegler@one-name.org
Pegler is the most common variant of the surname, in the past it has been spelt as Pedler, Pedlar and Peglar the latter is still in use today.
The surname Pegler first appears in the parish records in Gloucestershire in 1570 in the parishes of Frocester, Berkeley and Stonehouse.
Initial research has established that Pegler’s born in Australia, New Zealand and North America can be traced back to individuals born in Gloucestershire.
This also applies to those born in other regions of the United Kingdom.
The first Pegler’s in Australia arrived in Tasmania as convicts in 1821 and the first births in New Zealand are recorded from 1875 onwards.
Immigration records for North America show Pegler’s arriving in New York from 1835 and in South Africa from 1850 onwards.
Alan Pegler OBE, FRSA (16 April 1920 – 18 March 2012) Was a British businessman, entrepreneur, and railway preservationist. He is best known for saving the Ffestiniog Railway and the steam locomotive Flying Scotsman.
Frederick Charles Pegler (17 Oct 1896 - 31 May 1916) Was an Able Seaman in the Royal Navy serving on HMS Defence. On the 31st May 1916 he took part in the Battle of Jutland the largest naval battle of the first world war. During the battle HMS Defence was escorting the main body of the Grand Fleet, the ship was fired upon by one German battle cruiser and four dreadnoughts as she attempted to engage a disabled German light cruiser. She was struck by two salvoes from the German ships that detonated her rear magazine. The fire from that explosion spread to the ship's secondary magazines, which exploded in turn with the loss of all hands.
George Pegler (1777-1831) Was a tailor who in 1807 enlisted as a private in the 32nd Regiment of Foot. On the 18 June 1815 he took part in the Battle of Waterloo as part of Captain Hugh Harrison's Company. Having survived the battle and been awarded the Battle of Waterloo Medal on the 28 February 1816 he was discharged as no longer fit to serve having lost an eye and injured the other eye during the battle.
Guy Pegler (27 Sep 1921 - 17 May 1943) Was a Sergeant in the Royal Air Force, 617 Squadron he took part in the Dam Busters raid. On the night of the Dams raid Guy was the flight engineer for the crew of Lancaster AJ-S. He had previously flown 25 missions with Lewis Burpee the pilot and Gordon Brady the rear gunner at 106 squadron before all three transferred to 617 squadron. The rest of the crew were Thomas Jaye the navigator, Leonard Weller the wireless operator, James Arthur the bomb aimer and William Long the front gunner. On the night of the raid they left RAF Scampton at 0011, but never made it as far as the German border. While still over Holland, and approaching the gap between the heavily defended airfields at Gilze Rijen and Eindhoven, the aircraft strayed off course. It climbed slightly, probably in an effort to determine its exact position, but was then caught in searchlights and hit by flak. At 0200, it crashed on the edge of Gilze Rijen airfield, six miles south west of Tilburg. Its mine exploded on impact, demolishing a large number of buildings.
Henry Stephen Holmes Pegler (20 Mar 1848 – 21 Mar 1941) Was a Civil Servant in the Patent Office. In 1874 he published his Book of the Goat which contained full particulars of the various breeds of goats and their profitable management. In 1879 he founded the British Goat Society and was made the Honorary Secretary and Treasurer, he relinquished the role of Treasurer in 1912, but remained Secretary until 1917. In total he published 5 Editions of Book of the Goat the last was in 1917 when he was aged 69.
In the United Kingdom the BMD index between 1837 and 1930 has 2,492 births for Pegler and 354 for Peglar.
The parish records where available online suggest there are over 5,000 baptisms between 1570 and 1836.
A further 793 births have so far been identified in North America, Australasia and South Africa.
Of these individuals 42 appear on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission web site.
The most frequent occurrence of the Pegler surname are in the United Kingdom, North America and Australia.
The data so far collected includes :-
There is currently no DNA project for this One-Name Study.
A web site will be made available in 2026.