Faculty Office, 1821: Lambeth Palace Library, FM1/172, pp 296-297.19 October 1821

Appeared personally William Symons of Ryde in the Parish of Newchurch in the Isle of Wight and County of Southampton Gentleman and made Oath that on the fourteenth day of September in the Year One Thousand eight hundred and six, he the Deponent being then a Bachelor resident at Liverpool in the County of Lancaster and known only by the Name of William Sherwood.from the time of his Birth, was married by Licence by the said name of William Sherwood to Agnes Penn, then of Liverpool, Spinster in the Parish Church of Saint Nicholas in the said Town of Liverpool by The Reverend Lewis Pughe, Clerk, a Priest or Minister in Holy Orders of the Church of England, and ever since the Solemnization of the said Marriage, he the Deponent and his said Wife have always passed and been known by the names of William Sherwood and Agnes Sherwood, the Deponent always supposed that the said Name of Sherwood was the true and proper Sirname of his Father and of himself till lately,.for he.further deposeth and saith that his this Deponent's said Father for many years previous and down to the time of his death (which happened on the fourth day of July in the Year One Thousand eight hundred and two, when he was drowned in crossing the Liverpool River on his way to Chester Fair) carried on the Business of a Coach Master in Liverpool aforesaid, where he passed and was always called and known by the Christian and Sirnames of Nathaniel Sherwood and by no other Name, and in and by those Names (to wit) in the Year One Thousand seven hundred and eighty five he married Sarah Roberts this Deponent's Mother and the several Children Issue of this Marriage were all called and known by the said Sirname of Sherwood, And the Deponent further made Oath that he always understood and verify believes that his said Father never disclosed to his Wife (the Mother of this Deponent) nor to any of his Family, who his Relations were, or where they or any of them lived, and that they never knew or suspected or had any reason whatever to suspect that Nathaniel Sherwood were not his real and true Christian and Sirnames, till after the Death of his Widow this Deponent's said mother which happened in the Year One Thousand eight hundred and seventeen, After which event, that is to say, some time in or about the Year One Thousand eighthundred and eighteen, Upon looking over the Papers kept in a Family Chest belonging to the Deponent's said Father and subsequently to his said Widow, several Papers and Documents belonging to the Deponent's said Father were found therein, which first led to an Inquiry whether the Deponent's said Father's real Names were not in fact Nicholas Symons, and not Nathaniel Sherwood, which said Enquiry ended by ascertaining beyond all doubt that the Deponent's said Father was the second Son of William Symons of Hatt in the County of Cornwall, Esquire, and Elizabeth Symons his Wife (both long since deceased), that his real and true Christian and Sirnames were Nicholas Symons and not Nathaniel Sherwood, And that he was Tenant in Tail under the Will of his father the said William Symons, Esquire, deceased, And that he this Deponent as the eldest son of the said Nicholas Symons was intitied as Heir at Law and Devisee in Tail to very valuable Estates in the Counties of Cornwall and Devon, and an Ejectment having been tried at the last Assizes held for the said County of Cornwall, it was proved beyond all possibility of doubt, and was established by the Verdict of the Jury duly impannelled and sworn to try and said Ejectment, for the Lessor of the Plaintiff, that this Deponent's said Father's real and true Christian and Sirnames were Nicholas Symons, and that he this Deponent as his eldest son and Heir at Law is Tenant in Tail to certain large Estates in the said Counties of Cornwall and Devon, And the Deponent further made Oath that it having been suggested that under the circumstances hereinbefore setforth, doubts may arise whether he this Deponent should not have been married by the Name of William Symons especially as it has been now established by a Verdict at Law that his Father's real and true Christian and Sir- names were Nicholas Symons and not Nathaniel Sherwood, He this Deponent therefore to obviate all doubts as to the Validity of his Marriage And all Questions of title which might otherwise hereafter arise in regard to the said real Estates to which he the Deponent is now Tenant in Tail as aforesaid, is desirous of being married again to the said Agnes Symons otherwise Sher wood formerly Penn, And he further made Oath that he this Deponent and the said Agnes Symons formerly Agnes Penn are respectively above Twenty five Years of Age and are both of the Parish of Newchurch aforesaid and that he knoweth of no lawful Impediment by reason of any precontract (save to each other as aforesaid by reason of their aforesaid Marriage), Consanguinity, Affinity or any other lawful Cause to hinder the said intended Marriage, And he prayed a Licence to solemnize the same in the Parish Church of Newchurch aforesaid, And he lastly made Oath that the usual Place of abode of him the Appearer hath been in the said Parish of Newchurch for the space of four Weeks last past.

19th October 1821. [William Symons] The said William Symons was duly sworn to the Truth of this Affidavit, Before me, J Haggard, Surrogate.

The Guild of One-Name Studies of which Phil is a member has just published a book 'Distribution of Surnames in the 1881 British Census' compiled by Geoff Riggs (Price £15-see website above). Phil extracted all instances of Sherwood, Sharwood, Shearwood and Sheerwood, and the resulting distribution density is shown in this map from the book. The density values for each county were calculated as the ratio of number in county to population of county divided by the ratio of total number to population of Britain in 1881. Thus if the occurence is average the density is 1.0 The density varied from zero for some counties eg. Cornwall to 5 for Berkshire. The total number for all variants was 4,085 of whom  58 were Sharwood,  158 Shearwood and  17 Sheerwood. Sharwood mainly occurred in Kent, London & Northampton. I did not included Sher(r)ard and Sharrard which has a different origin and distribution, although doubtless some Sherwoods were enumerated under these names. Statistics for the highest density counties were:

                    Density       %   Number in Cty

Berkshire               5.0        3.6            149

Worcesters.           3.3        4.2            171

Oxfords.                3.0        1.8            74

Radnors.                2.8        0.2            9

Dorset                  2.7        1.7            71

Northants             2.4        2.2            91

Shrops.                2.3        1.9            79

Norfolk                 2.3        3.4            139

Kent                    2.1        4.8            196

 

London had the highest number 647 closely followed by Yorkshire with 616, but because of their high population the density was only 1.2 and 1.6 respectively. The main conclusion is that our surname was (and still is according to phone books) clustered in the Home Counties around London, with other large clusters in Yorks, Norfolk and Worcs. This distribution is in broad agreement with those found in the GRO indexes from 1837 and the IGI. Certainly the Sherwoods do not appear to have spread out from Nottingham Forest! Like other toponymic surnames such as Wood, our surname probably sprung up independently in several different places. (Scir-wood, dweller in the bright wood or shire wood).

 

Sherwoods in the US 1880 Census on CD

Recently I had the opportunity to search the LDS indexes of the 1880 census for the USA on CD-ROM. As for the British 1881 Census, families can be displayed in as-enumated order, but in addition it is possible to search by Gender and Race (White, Black, Mulatto, Asian or Native American). I was amazed to find 8,545 Sherwoods (over twice as many as in the British 1881 census) of which 182 were of Black race, 39 Mulatto, and 3 Native American Indians in Washington & California. 154 gave birthplace as England of whom 81 were male, 73 were born in Ireland and 16 in Scotland. Most (3,402) lived in the Atlantic States Region, followed by 806 in New England & 433 in the Cumberland Region. 473 lived in New York City, 1,834 in upstate NY, 123 in NJ, 54 in Delaware, 582 in CT(where the earliest Sherwoods settled in 1634), 118 in MA and 170 in Texas. Presumably most of the Sherwoods of black race were ex-slaves who took their name from their owners?

 I have a Word or Excel file containing all Sherwoods listed in the National Index if anyone would like a copy. These CDs are definitely a 'must have' for American Sherwoods.

 

CONTACTS

Chairman/Secretary & Group Organiser:    Dr Philip J Sherwood, 20 Belfield Park Avenue, Weymouth, Dorset DT4 9RE, UK.

Newsletter Editor: Vacancy

North American Representative:  Mr Geoffrey Sherwood, 33 Heritage Court, Towaco, New Jersey NJ 7082, USA. 
Canadian Representative: Vacancy

Australian Representative: Mrs Margaret Love, 30 Brockman Avenue, Dalkeith, PERTH  WA6009 Australia  
NZ Representative: Vacancy (presently covered by Margaret Love)