Digwood

This very interesting name is a dialectual transposition of the Olde Suffolk village name "Dagworth", which first appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Daggerworda". The name translates as "the wood of the Daecca's" - an Olde Saxon Tribal name from the pre 8th century and also found in Dagglingworth in Gloucester. Locational surnames were usually acquired by a local landowner, or by the lord of the manor, and especially by those former inhabitants of a place who moved to another area, and were thereafter best identified by the name of their birthplace. In the modern spellings both Digwood and Digweed appear simultaneously in London suggesting that there may have been a wholesale emigration from the original home village. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Johanna Digwood which was dated 1622 Married Thomas Skinner in London during the reign of King James 1 of England and V1 of Scotland 1603 - 1625 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.