This is the content of the first group newsletter as it was originally written without any edits:

Newletter of the Rigmaiden One-Name Study, December 2011

For this first issue of the Rigmaiden newsletter I have decided to look at the origins of this decidedly unusual surname. I have included extracts and comments from a variety of sources, highlighted in bold, concerning the origins of the family name and place name. There are a number of variant spellings but the most common modern version is Rigmaiden with Rigmaden being reserved for the Hall near Kirby Lonsdale. In older documents the name appears as Rygmaiden or Rygmayden with other deviations occurring less frequently. Although source no 4 mentions occurrence of the family name in Lincolnshire documentary evidence fails to back this up.

1. An armorial for Westmorland and Lonsdale by R S Boumphrey and C Roy Hudleston; J Hughes with a foreword by Roger Fulford. Lake District Museum Trust; Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society, 1975.
p250 'RIGMADEN, of Rigmaden. The Rigmaden family held land in Mansergh between 1260, when Richard de Rigmaidin and Alica his wife released land to Nicolas, son of Roger de Manesergh, and in 1546, when John de Rygmayden and Mary his wife conveyed a tenement to George Banegrygg (Farrer ii  375-85). Arms. Argent three stags' heads couped sable (NB i 252)
RIGMAIDEN. The Rigmaidens were the principal resident family in Middleton (L)from the end of the 15th century to until the death of William Rigmaiden, 1608. William Rygmayden of Woodacre, Garstang, was constable of Lancaster Castle, c1400. Arms Argent three bucks' heads cabossed sable (VCH1. viii 74 ; Shield in Shire Hall, Lancaster). These arms were born by Thomas Rigmayden, temp, Edward 1 (FFC)'

2. The place names of Westmorland by A H Smith. Part 1. Cambridge University Press, 1967.
p51'Rigmaden Fm, Rig(g)-, Ryg(g)maiden, Rygge-, -mayd- 1255 LAInq, 1292 Ass 19. 1301, 1344, Kend i, 138, 1316 FF, 1345 Cl, 1pm et passim to 1738 Rent 1, Rigmaddin 1610 Kend ii, 424, -maden 1647 WilsonL, 1656 PR(KL) et freq to 1865 OS. 'The maiden's ridge', v. hryggr, maegden. This p.n is an inversion compound, a Celtic (Irish) type of composition introduced into NW England from Ireland by Norwegian Vikings (cf Ekwall, ScandsCelts 13ff); several other examples like Wath Sutton, Satearngrim, Crosscrake, Rigg Brunild, Brigsteer, CrossDormant, etc. (i, 57, 62, 99, 109, ii, 210 etc.) occur in We (v Introd.)

[Abbreviatons used above:
LAInq Lancashire Inquests, Extents and Feudal Aids, ed by W Farrar, Lancashire & Cheshire Record Society, 1903-7.
Ass Assize roll, 1256(CW xiii, 67-78)
Kend Records relating to the Barony of Kendal ed W Farrar & J F Curwen, CWRec, 4,5,6, Kendal, 1923-6.
FF Feet of Fines 1196-1659, in PRO (CP 25)
Cl CAlendar of Close rolls, PRO, In progress
Rent 1 Rentals & Surbeys in the PRO
WilsonL R P Brown. Edward Wilson of NetherLevens and his kin CW Tract series12, 1930
OS Original 1" Ordnance Survey map

3. Place names of Great Britain and Ireland by John Field. David & Charles, 
p? 'Rigmaiden [Westmorland], 'maiden's ridge' a hybrid name compounded in the order associated with Norse settlers from Ireland, viz with the qualifying element following the main component (cf Aspatria ) [Rig(g) maiden 1255: ON hrygger , OE maegden]

4. The general armoury, 
p857 'Rigmaiden (Wedacre, [County] Lancaster; [Heralds' Visitation] Lancaster 1557). Ar. three bucks' heads cabossed [sable]. Crest a buck's head erased [sable]
Rigmaiden ([counties] Lancaster & Lincoln). Ar three bucks' heads cabossed sa.'

5. A history of surnames of the British Isles ...by C L'Estrange Ewen. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co, 1931.
p341 'Rigmaiden. Local. A locality and seat in Westmorland.

Rich. Rigmayden, Lancs 1245  (Fines : Farrar)

Thom. de Rigmayden Lancs, 1377. (Cl. R)
J Rigmeydon, courssourman, 1509. (Letters & Papers, Brown)
Isabel Rigmaiden, Staff. 1547. (Pat. R)
Francis Rigmaydon, bur 1595 (St Francis, Cornhill)
A H Rigmaiden, Liverpool, 1930, Dir. 

Lower curiously derives this surname from a nickname given to a 'romping girl'. Having once become obsessed with the idea that surnames are derived from vulgar epithets, discovery of origin becomes easy. Probably Joyemaiden (Cambs, 1275: Hund. R) has as simple an origin as Rigmaiden. Maden is a local surname.

6. English placename elements by A H Smith Pts I & II. Cambridge University Press, 1956.
In this work Smith treats the two components of the name separately:
v1 p267 "hryggr [Old Norse] a ridge [or long narrow hill] , used in the same way as hryeg which it sometimes replaces, as in Rigton [West Yorkshire], a) Ribby [Lancashire] (by), b)Rigmaiden [Westmorland] (maegden), b) Brownrigg [Cumberland] (brun), Crossrig [Cumberland] (Cros), Bigrygg (bygg), Louthrigg (lauk) [Cumberland], Eskrigg (esk), Hazelrig (hesli) [Lancashire], Lambrigg [Westmorland] (lamb), Marrick [North Yorkshire] (mkrr)"
v2 p32 "maegden [Old English] a maiden
(1) This [element] generally denotes 'a maiden, a young unmarried woman', in [pronouns] usually in allusion to places owned by them, to places thought suitable for their use, or to places which they habitually frequented (as in lanes or at bridges, fords and the like), as in [pronouns] incorporating words for 'youth', like cild, cniht, sometimes to places owned by religious females.
(2) The use of the word with burh and castel is fairly widespread .... [eg Maiden Castle] .. In a few instances like Medbury ... where there is no evidence of earthwork or old fortification, it may simply denote 'a manor held by maidens', but usually such places are the sites of ancient earthworks. In many of them the suggestion that they signify 'a fortification so strong that it could be defended by girls' or 'one that has never been taken' would no doubt be possible but this kind of description would hardly be applicable to some of the earthworks which must have long passed into disuse when these names were created. The sense may well be that implied by other names like the common Love Lane (cf Maiden Lane [otherwise] Lovers Lane in Penrith [Cumberland] ....), in other words 'a place frequented by maidens, a secluded place where maidens could indulge their fancies unobserved'.
... in maege [Old English] the name also encompasses 'kinswoman'

7. Surnames by Ernest Weekley. John Murray, 1918.
Weekly explains in his foreword that the first attempt at anything like a history of surnames was Lower's Patronymica Britannica published in 1860. He continues " Lower seems to have been a genial antiquary, with a good deal of miscellaneous information, but no serious knowledge of European languages. ... He knew, however, something about the general history of surnames and had read all that had been written in English on the subject. Some of his suggested etymologies are rather funny ...  [Lower writes]:
"Rigmaiden Two gentry families, settled respectively in Counties Lincoln and Lancaster, bore this remarkable name, which at the commencement of the present century [the 19th] was still extant. I can give no better etymology for the name ..... than 'a romping girl'"
..... Rigmaden is a seat in Westmorland, and the local surname ..... de Riggemaiden can be easily attested from the medieval records of the north. "

8. East Lancashire nomenclature and Rochdale names by H C Marsh. 
Interestingly here we are told
p21 "Some of the places called 'maiden', such as 'Maden Fold' and 'Rigmaden' mean meadow; as well as Green Middens Farm ...   The acre [from the Anglo-Saxon] signified corn-land; while as a measure it was as much as might be ploughed in a day. We have such words as Barnacre ..."
The manor held by the Rigmaiden family in medieval times was Wedacre [Woodacre] or Barnacre, just outside Garstang in Lancashire - an interesting coincidence?.