Lamshead

Recorded as Lambswood, Lamswood, and possibly Lamzed, although this is more probably a corruption of the Devon surname Lamshead, this is an English and West Country surname. It is rarely recorded outside of the county of Devon, and the concentration of early recordings and spellings in the South Devon area around Dartmouth and Torbay, suggest that it is probable that it does originate from that region of the county to the east and south of Dartmoor. Locational surnames are usually 'from' names, given to people who left their original village looking for work, but not necessarily so in Devonshire which for many centuries was the richest county in England outside of London. There does not appear to be any such place now called Lambswood or Lambshead, and these may have been villages on Dartmoor which were evacuated with the weather changes from warm to cold, in the late Medieval period. Early examples of recordings in Devonshire church registers include Thomas Lamshead of Ilsington in the year 1560, Johan Lamswoode who married John Sellye at East Teignmouth on December 20th 1620, and Mary Lamswood who married William Heath at St Saviours, Dartmouth, on April 18th 1803.