"The Shards" — Newsletter of the Shard*low Study Group



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Issue #35

Comment
In the last Newsletter I referred to trying to establish the relationship to each other of various Shard*low*s named in early documents. As very few of us can hope to prove a direct descent from these people it may seem of little importance but in a study of a particular name I feel it would be wrong to ignore these. If nothing else it may throw some light on the division of the name into the spelling with an “A or E” in the middle and that without. Some people writing to me have stated quite categorically that the name is of Saxon origin and it is true that an area of South Derbyshire known by that name is mentioned in the Doomsday Survey of 1086. This lists Uthband as holding land in Shardlow and Aston (on Trent) “holds from the King” and K.S.B. Keats-Rohan in her book “Domesday People” refers to him as being English. This does not mean that the people who, a hundred years later, added `de Shardelow’ to their first name (later to become the surname) were necessarily those occupying the land at the time of the survey. Writing about 1130 Henry of Huntingdon noted “In the twenty-first year of King William’s reign there was hardly a nobleman of English descent left in England, but all were reduced to servitude.. .” In the two centuries following the conquest many people from Normandy, Brittany and other parts of what is now France settled in England and filled most of the administrative posts. This must make it a possibility that Robert de Sherdelawe (Shardelow) named as a justice in 1230, was of Norman descent.

New contacts
This Newsletter continues to be the main source of these, Stuart Shardelow of the family in Wales contacted John as did Felix Kessling-Wulf whose enquiry about Tom Shardelow, Olympic Cyclist John passed on to all members. With Tommy’s permission I have given his address to Felix. Debbie Sturgess Emailed me from New Zealand asking about the Shardlow/Shadlow family featured in SHARDS #33. I have put her in touch with my contact for this family.

DNA
I do not know how widely it was reported but my daily paper recently carried an article on a project launched by the National Geographic Society and IBM, this was headlined “£50 to trace your DNA” and went on to say “…the mammoth task of tracing the family history of mankind ”. Terms like “family history” can be very misleading and, as I understand it, this project would be no help in tracing one’s Great grandfather. It is generally accepted that we all descended from seven female lines commonly referred to as the “Seven Daughters of Eve,” what this project sets out to do is to classify indigenous populations into these seven groups. If anyone wants further information they should contact www.nationalgeographic.com/

Since writing these notes a family history magazine has published a letter from a reader pointing out that for anyone in GB, carriage and VAT (value added tax) bring the cost nearer £100.

Captain Shardlow
I have received an entry for this gentleman in the “City of London Aid Assessment” dated 1693-1694. His address is given as St Mary Maudlin, Milk Street Precinct, Cripplegate Ward. The assessment is “rent nil tax nil. Stock £100 tax £1. 4 s. 0p.” Without a first name or initial I have not been able to connect Captain Shardlow with a family and any help would be appreciated. The IGI has some entries for the Cripplegate area in the 1600s but these are for the name SHARD.

I also have a clipping from the “Staffordshire Sentinal” dated February 1876 reporting an inquest on the death of Mary Shardlow aged 80. It appears this lady died as a result of falling downstairs three days previously at her home at Normacott. Unfortunately this report does not say if this was her family name or her married name, I have nine extensive pedigrees in my records, she does not fit in any of these but from the location I feel sure she must be connected with the family at Stoke-on-Trent and Stone, Staffordshire.

An echo from the past
SHARDS #24 had a note of the untimely death of Paul Shardlow, Goalkeeper for Stoke City Football Club aged 25, I have just had an Email from a person who did not give his name who remembers Paul also playing for Stone Cricket Club. My informant also recalls Paul’s father Bert as “… a lovely gentleman who took time to coach me in the wondrous art of leg spin bowling”.

Naval Connection?
Recently I had reason to look for a person not a Shard*low* and came across a CD of the “Navy List of the Napoleonic Wars, 1787-1815”, this only lists commissioned officers and is priced at £56 but does have the very useful facility of being able to check the database `online’ before making the considerable outlay. I took the opportunity to check for Shard*low*s at the same time with no success but if anyone wishes to look for other names the address to make a search is www.ageofnelson .org/NavyList/index.html

The London Gazette
The issue dated 17 July 1900 reported the voluntary winding up of a company by the name of “Golden Gate of California, Limited” and the formation of a new company to be called “Mines Development Company of Victoria, Limited “. My reason for reporting this is that the Company Secretary was Thomas George Shardlow, the 1901 Census shows him living at 24 Broderick Road, Wandsworth aged 36 and living with his widowed mother Adelaide, a younger sister Harriett and a child listed as Adelaide’s grandson. Thomas was born in South Norwood, Surrey, the son of a tailor William S. born in Shardlow, Derbyshire. I do not know when William moved to London but it must have been before 1860 because the first of seven children was registered there in December of that year when they were living at 7 Lower Eaton St., Pimlico. All the other children were born at various addresses in London but all were Baptised at St. Peter’s Church, Nottingham where William and Adelaide Mee were married 3 Jan. 1860.

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