Driver

My grandmother, Ada, told my Dad the following story about the name 'Driver'.

There were two sisters who were serving wenches at an Inn in Cosworth (north of Liverpool) at the time of the French revolution. A Frenchman came to stay at the Inn. He needed money to sustain himself so took the job of driving one of the coaches. Not wishing to use his French name he adopted the name "Driver". He either married or had an affair with one of the serving wenches. The were two children as a result of the union. A few years later as suddenly as he arrived at the Inn, he left, and no one saw or heard of him again. That wench according to my Dad's mother was one of her ancestors. [Admittedly, this sounds a bit like a Thomas Hardy novel, and it looks as though it's a story which is going to be impossible to verify, especially if it's true! But it is interesting that other Drivers on the Internet have stories about their being of French origin, and Rebecca Driver's middle name of 'Paris' may be an indication of this. Or maybe not!].