Swallow

This name has two possible origins. The first being locational from a place in Lincolnshire, so called from the river Swallow on which it stands. The name may also have been a nickname from the Medieval English "swalewe", itself deriving from the Olde English "swealwe" meaning a swallow. The nickname was probably originally given to one having the Swallow's characteristics i.e swiftness and grace. Alternate spellings of the name have included de Swallwe (Lincolnshire) and Swalowe and Swalough (1379). The spelling Swallow is first recorded in 1624. One, Samuell Swallow married a Francis Denyson in St. James' Church, Clerkenwell, London.The Coat of Arms granted to the family has the blazon of a gold shield thereon a black fesse between three black swallows volant. The Crest being; a mast and rigging of a ship issuing out of a whale's mouth. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Helevisa Swalve, which was dated 1273, in the Hundred Rolls of Huntingdon, during the reign of King Edward 1, known as the Hammer of the Scots, 1272 - 1307. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.