Shearwood

A locational name of Olde English and Anglo-Saxon origins from the pre 8th Century. The name means 'one resident at the 'cultivated' wood (scir-wode)'. In the modern idiom the name can be found as Sherwood and Shearwood. The name illustrates that the 'Hollywood' image of Sherwood as being a jungle is quite wrong. The name development has included Margareta de Shyrwode (1379, The Yorkshire Poll Tax Rolls) William Sherwood, married Dionise Butler, (London 1577) and in 1661, John Sherwood married Judith Cooke, at St.Thomas, The Apostle, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Ralph de Scirwode. which was dated 1273, in the Pipe Rolls of Lincoln. during the reign of King Edward 1, known as the Hammer of the Scots, 1272 - 1307. 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.