History of the Shard*low Name

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Migration: Shardelows, Shardalows and Shardelawes and where they live and lived

Cliff Shardalow

This is a summary of the geography we've discovered so far including locations where Shardelows live(d) who we have not yet managed to link to the main group, despite in some cases that they originate from the same villages/towns/areas (e.g. the South Wales Shardelows originate from Great Yarmouth and Dickleburgh, [map] the former very close to Shardalows at Norton Subcourse [map] and the latter being very much a Shardelow village). Names are generally followed by the Person ID in the family tree website (e.g. P411, but please note you will not be able to see that person on the website if they are living, unless you register for a free user account (to do this click on Login and then 'Register for New User Account' at the bottom of the pop up window). To find a specific Person ID, click on Find then Search People then enter the P number in the search screen. The main tree is called “My Genealogy /The Shardalow Name”, there are some other trees from Gerry Langford but we have not maintained them. From an individual you can click on various tabs that will show you 'Ancestors', 'Descendants' ….. The 'Relationship' tab can be useful in working out the relationship between two people e.g. it tells us that P411 is the 16 x Great Grand Father of P61.

A note on the spelling
Our focus is on Shardelows and Shardalows. We are all from the same families. Shardalow is a spelling variation that originated I think from the 18th century. My Great Great Great Great Great Grandfather was born Edward Shardelow (P61) in 1726 but died Edward Shardalow in 1807. And it seems all the Shardalows descend from Edward.
Earlier the name was spelt differently. Between the 13th and 15th century an “e” on the end was quite common i.e. Shardelowe.
In the 13th and 14th centuries a French “de” was commonly found in documents e.g. Edmundus de Shardelowe. This example also shows the latinisation of first name. I am guessing that Latin versions would be common in official documents and “de” was added after the Norman Conquest in 1066.
References from the 12th century see the name spelt as Shardelawe and in some branches it was spelt as Schardelow.

Locations through the ages
Our earliest relative was Nigel de Shardelawe (P411). His son William (P410) had a daughter Idonea (P409). The 'feet of fines', a medieval court record of land ownership changes, quotes a land transaction in the village of Shardlow [map], Derbyshire involving her. So this links our Shardelows and subsequent Shardalows to the village of Shardlow. Nigel would have been born about 1110 and despite this being only some 24 years after the Domesday Book, which recorded landowners at the time, there is no mention of the family in it.

Idonea's son Robert (P406) was the first in the family that we have a record of a legal career. This included in 1231 him being the Justice Itinerant for Cambridgeshire. This appears to be the first step, we know about, into East Anglia. 5 years later he was Justice Itinerant in Ireland.

Robert's grandson John (P397) was born in 1260 in Little Barton [map] in Suffolk (also called Barton Parva and now called Barton Mills). It is near Mildenhall and is 22 miles NE of Cambridge. The church of St Mary's in Barton Mills is worth a visit and includes some restored Shardelow coat of arms stained glass windows. In 1326 he bought 200 acres in Fulbourn [map] near Cambridge, this would become Shardelow's Manor. There is a house known as Old Shardelowes in Fulbourn, probably at or near the site of the manor.

John was also a lawyer, becoming Justice of the Common Pleas in 1332 and was knighted in 1337.

Sir John's sons John (P399) and Thomas (P401) founded Thompson College in Norfolk in 1348. It is a third son Edmund (P393), born in 1290, that we think we are related to (we don't know yet when John and Thomas were born).

It is now College Farm, I visited it earlier this year (2019) and had a quick conversation with the current owner who it seems descends from the de Grey family that Thomas married in to (see P402). I think that makes the current owner and myself 19th cousins! St. Martin's church in Thompson, Norfolk is also very closely linked to the Shardelowes of that time and they are thought to be buried there. The church has the Shardelow coat of arms in one of the stained glass windows (it is currently on the website main page). Its a fabulous church and is undergoing some excellent restoration where funds allow. Thompson is 25 miles SW of Norwich.

Edmund's son John (P385) was born in Little Barton (see above) in 1315 and in 1387 he was living at Shardelows Manor in Fulbourn (also see above). His grandson John (P380) was born either at Fulbourn or Shimpling near Diss in Norfolk in 1399 (I need to confirm which sometime if possible). This is the first appearance of Shimpling, Thelveton or Dickleburgh, [map] Norfolk - three villages all within a mile of each other, 18 miles south of Norwich. Many Shardelows lived here including his son Simon (P378) and then his son Thomas (P361) in 1497. There is evidence of Shardelows in these 3 villages from 1399 to 1738 (339 years) and there are probably many more that we have not yet researched and tied into the family.

Thomas' son Leonard (P359) was born 13 miles East in Bungay, in Suffolk, in 1532 and Leonard died 6 miles away in 1573. His son Thomas (P357) was born, further East again, in Kessingland, Suffolk, near the sea, 5 miles South of Lowestoft. His son John (P354) became the Vicar of Ilketshall St Andrew in 1632 and then the Rector of Beccles both in Suffolk. There is a list of the Vicars displayed on the Ilketshall church wall and John's name was there when I visited earlier this year (2019).

John's grandson Thomas (P352) was born in 1677 in Dickleburgh. His nephew John Shardelow (P102) married in Little Plumstead, 5 miles NE of Norwich. His son Edward (P61) was born 14 miles away in Chedgrave near Loddon on the other side of the river Yare. Edward is the oldest in the main family line whose grave we have found, we will maybe get the gravestone restored one day. He died in 1807 and is buried 4 miles from Chedgrave in Norton Subcourse, his gravestone is there to be seen (there's an indexed map inside the church makeing it easier to find). It is here, as a teenager in the 1970s that I first came across my ancestors in Norfolk. Edward was my GGGGG Grand Father and I am one of about 40 or so of his GGGGG Grandchildren in our tree! Edward would seem to have been born a Shardelow and buried a Shardalow.

Norton Subcourse, [map] adjoining Thurlton and Thorpe Next Haddiscoe, 1½ miles away, all in Norfolk, were home to a large number of Shardalows. In the 1851 Census there were 34 Shardalows living in 9 different premises in these 3 villages, all within about 2 miles of each other. Edward (P61) and wife Hannah (P60) was living in Norton Subcourse in 1753 when their first child was baptised. Edward's Great Great Grandaughter Charlotte 'Agnes' Shardalow (P248) was buried in Thorpe Next Haddiscoe churchyard in 1962, she was the last known Shardalow in the area of the 3 villages. So the Sharde/alows were living in this area for at least 209 years.

Emigration
All of Edward and Hannah's 11 children appear to have been born in and died in or near Norton Subcourse. With the next generation things changed. Four of their son Francis's (P54) 11 children emigrated and their son Drake (P29) moved to London probably in the early 1820s. The first to emigrate was Sarah Shardalow (P62) in 1833 although we have not found any reference to her ship crossing. She married Henry Chandler (P643) 21 March 1833. On 8 October their first son William Shaidlow Chandler (P644) is born in Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island on the east coast of Canada. So presumably they made the sea crossing sometime in the weeks after their marriage. There are many Chandlers on the island today.

Next to emigrate was Sarah's older sister Kezia Shardalow (P63). In 1834 she sailed from Gravesend, east of London to Hobart, Tasmania, Australia on the ship Strathfieldsaye. It was a 5 week journey and most of the 300 passengers were 'free women'. Documentation states “grievous disparity between the sexes, and the state of morals obviously arising from such a state of society, render the accession of females of virtuous and industrious habits in the highest degree essential, they owed the utmost care and caution in sanctioning and aiding the transit of such females only as were likely to become really useful.” Some trip! She married William Sherwood (P273) and had family.

Next to emigrate was older brother John Fairweather Shardalow (P65). In 1844 he was an insolvent common brewer, in debt and in gaol in Cambridge! In December 1845 his wife died. In April 1849 he's on board The Spartan which travels from London to Plymouth and on to Port Adelaide in South Australia. In 1863 he is insolvent again, in Trentham, Victoria with his niece's husband, both miners.

In 1852 youngest in the family Susan (P68) emigrates with her 2 illegitimate daughters Sarah (P182) and Keziah (P184); her first, a son, had died in Norton Subcourse aged 4. They sail on the Eliza. The girls were aged 13 and 4. Sarah married Charles Marquand (P183); I believe some of their descendants still follow the family name. Keziah (P184) married Thomas Moore (P185) and we have evidence of descendants into the 1980s. Susan (P68) died in Kyneton, Victoria, not far from Trentham (see above).

The Great Grandson of Edward Shardalow (P61), Thomas Samuel Shardalow (P191) emigrated to South Africa. We have not found the shipping record. He married Henrietta Woods (P192) in 1878, she lived in Norton Subcourse. They can not be found in the 1881 UK Census, they have 4 children in England up to 1879. Their second son Edward 'John' (P195), now spelt Shardelow, died in Johannesburg in 1901 during the Boer War. So sometime between 1879 and 1901 they emigrated, I think probably in 1880/1. There are now many Shardelows in South Africa and some interest in our family tree. Hopefully, one will read this and be able to add detail.

In 1901 another Edward 'John' (P172) emigrated on the SS Cambroman from Liverpool to Portland on the east coast of America, although Census records suggest he may have emigrated earlier. He ends up in Nelson, British Columbia, Canada in the Rocky Mountains. His father's tombstone in Norfolk clearly spells his name Shardalow, but Edward John's immigration record and all references in Canada spell it as Shardelow.

Strange how two Edward John Shardalows (P195 and P172) were both known as 'John' and both emigrated, one to South Africa and one to Canada, and both reverted to spell their surname Shardelow. They were 3rd cousins or in other words shared the same Great Great Grandfather.

In 1924 three of Edward John's (P172) nephews emigrated to Canada. His sister Annie Jane (P171) married Henry Rushmer (P617) in 1890 and 3 of their sons, James (P622), Hubert (P623) and Robert (P621) sailed on the RMS Carmania from Liverpool to Quebec. Presumably they went to wherever Edward John was at this stage. They ceratinly ended up out in Nelson and British Columbia.

In 1929 Edward John's sister Charlotte Agnes (P248) visited Canada, presumably to see her brother, his two children aged 17 and 18 and probably her three Rushmer nephews. In 1931 James Rushmer (P622) made a 4 month trip home to Thurlton, Norfolk to see the family. Edward John (P172) died in 1932. His son Edward George (P176) born in 1912 died in France in 1944 during World War 2. Canada named a mountain after him, Mount Shardelow, [map] [picture] 2396 metres, is 35 miles north west of Nelson in the Valkyr range of the Rockies. Some of the family carried a commemorative plaque up a couple of years ago but had to leave it an hour from the top because of the weather. Some of us are hoping to carry it to the top in summer 2020.

Joan Shardalow (P35) lost her parents, sister and other family on her mother's side to a bomb hit during the Blitz on London in 1941. In 1946 she married Albert Cappelli (P82), a US soldier, in Paddington, London. In 1947 Joan emigrated to be with her husband in Pennsylvania, USA. Al and Joan lived into their 90s, that is so good given the horrors of that war and the fate of some less fortunate.

In modern times more of the ex Paddington Shardalows have migrated away and now live in or near Portsmouth, Toronto (including one of the Shardalow website administrators, John), South Wales (not directly linked to the Shardelows of Barry etc.), Scotland (the other website administrator, Cliff), London, Amsterdam. These all originate from the Norton Subcourse cluster. Inevitably, cousins of Sharde/alows have also emigrated.

Living Sharde/alows in our tree (On this site called... My Genealogy / The Shardalow Name) fall into three main groups:

Current Placenames related to the family name:

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