Hawkwood

Recorded as Hawkeswood, Hawkswood, Hawkwood, Hawksworth, Hauxwood, Hoxwood, and others, this is an English locational surname. It originates from the two places in the county of Shropshire called Hawkswood, or the villages of Hawksworth in Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire. Although there is some room for argument, it seems very likely that the origin of the four places is much the same. This is 'Hawks wood' with Hawk being an early personal name at various times spelt Hafoc, Hauk, and Hoch, although probably pronounced much the same. It has to be appreciated that universal education is a recent innovation dating back only a century or so. Before that few could write their name, and even fewer, those people called Clark, Clarke and Clerk, in Medieval times being the ones with what we today regard as normal reading and writing skills. To add to the problem of spelling, locational names were often 'from' names. That is to say that they were given as easy identification to people who had left their original homesteads, to live in another town or village. The name development has included: Hoxwood (as below), Hauxwood in Worcestershire in 1682, and Hawkswood, also in Worcestershire in 1695. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Alice Hoxwood. This was dated 27th July 1589, when she was christened at Upton Snodsbury, in Worcestershire, during the reign of Elizabeth Ist of England, 1558-1603. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.