Lutwyche

This most interesting and unusual surname is English. It is locational from Lutwyche, a village in the county of in Shropshire, nine miles from the town of Ludlow. This village is itself ancient being first recorded as "Loteis" in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 and later as "Lotwych" in the Assize Court Rolls of Salop (Shropshire) in 1292. The placename is composed of the pre 7th century Olde English element "lot", which is cognate with the German word "lote", and appears to decribe a special shovel used to cut ditches and canals. The second element is the word "wic", which can have various meanings, but was usually a dairy farm. However in this case we believed that the name means an outlying farm, one that was reached by crossing various ditches cut with a special shovel. The surname is recorded in a number of spellings including Lotwich, Lutwidge, and Lutwyche, and is said to be relatively popular in the English West Midlands. Early examples of recordings taken from surviving rolls and registers include William de Lotwich in the Hundred Rolls of Salop in 1273, whilst Sir Edward Lutwyche who died in 1709 in the reign of Queen Anne, was the Judge of the Common Pleas from 1686 until his death. The first recorded spelling of the family name is believed to be that of Henry de Lotwich. This was dated 1273, in the Hundred Rolls of Salop, during the reign of King Edward 1st of England and known to istory as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.