Aizlewood

Sadly there is no such tree as the 'Aizle' and therefore one must look more carefully for the origin. There are in fact two possibilities, both locational, and both Yorkshire. The first is that the name is a variant of the popular Hazelwood, of which there are several villages in the region, the second is that it is a development of Olde English 'Ashlac' found in the Yorkshire village of Aislaby, which translates as The farm (bi) of Ashlac. If this second hypothesis is correct then the 'Aislewood' name holders derive from a now lost medieval village. There are some five thousand plus such villages, so this cannot be ruled out. However we believe that Aizelwood is a South Yorkshire variant, the name appearing in Rotherham from the early 19th century, and being prominent there in the church registers. However long before then Katheren Aselwood was christened in London on December 1st 1539, at the church of St Lawrence Jewry, but this is almost a lone appearance in the South. What we do know is that on Christmas Day 1824, James Aizlewood married Elizabeth Parrett at Rotherham, and on December 11th 1826, George Aizlewood, who may be his brother, married Mary Straw at the same place. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Ricardus de Hesilwode, which was dated 1379, The Poll Tax Rolls of Yorkshire, during the reign of King Richard 11, known as Richard of Bordeaux, 1377 - 1399. 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.