Gorwood

This interesting name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname from some minor, unrecorded, or now "lost" place believed to have been situated in Northern England, probably in Yorkshire, due to the prevalence of church recordings of the surname in that county. An estimated seven to ten thousand villages and hamlets are known to have disappeared in Britain since circa 1100, due to such natural disasters as the Black Death of 1348, in which an eighth of the population perished, or to the widespread practice of "clearing" large areas of land to make sheep pastures during the height of the wool-trade in the 15th Century. The placename Garwood derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century "gara", referring to a triangular piece of land, or to a spearhead, plus "wudu" meaning a wood. Variant spellings include Gerwood, Gurwood and Gorwood. One Joseph Gorwood married Margaret Wemble on March 12th 1675, at St. Mary le Bone, London. Another London marriage was that of Hannah Garwood to James Mansfield on July 21st 1699, at St. Katherine by the Tower. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Cicle Garwod, which was dated August 7th 1575, christened at Great Edstone, Yorkshire, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, known as "Good Queen Bess", 1558 - 1603. 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. This ancient English surname of GARWOOD is of the locational group of surnames meaning 'one who came from GARWOOD' a spot in County Lancashire. The name was originally rendered in the Old English form GARA WUDU, literally meaning the dweller at a triangular piece of land. The earliest of the name on record appears to be GRATESWODE (without surname) who was recorded in Lancashire in 1189. Surnames can be divided into four categories; place names, occupation names, nicknames and patronymics. PLACE NAMES are the largest group and covers all those names first applied to people who lived in or nearby to a particular place. For example, Grove, Wood, Field, Meadow, and Street are obvious. Occasionally names were taken from obscure villages or hamlets which no longer exist and this can make research confusing. OCCUPATION NAMES cover nearly all trades which existed in the Middle Ages. These are

numerous. It does not necessarily follow that such names as King, Duke, Earl and so on mean your ancestors were of noble blood. It is much more likely that such named people worked for the person referred to. NICKNAMES. This is a smaller group but in many ways more interesting. They usually originated as a by-name for someone by describing their appearance, personal disposition or character but which became handed down through the ages and did not apply to their descendants. For instance the name Black would denote a dark man, Little, someone small (or even somewhat ambiguously) someone tall. PATRONYMICS. This group covers all names which derive immediately from the owner's father. Many christian names which are also surnames have, over the years, lost the possessive form but the origin is still the same. Examples of this could be names such as Peter,Thomas, Henry - all names which became both christian and surnames over the years. Later instances of the name include Riccardus filius GARWODE, who was recorded in 1377, and Thomas GARWOODE of Yorkshire, was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379.