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"The Shards" — Newsletter of the Shard*low Study Group |
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Issue #39
Comment
Having suffered a Hard Disc failure from which it was not possible to recover any data I am having to reinstall all the operating
programs I use and, to make matters worse, I had failed to back up a lot of Shard*low data which will be more difficult to replace.
We are often told the importance of frequently saving our work and this is a mistake I shall not make again.
If I am slow in replying to some enquiries you will know the reason.
Safety of Gun-barreles
In a letter to the Times newspaper published 29 Dec 1849, too long to quote in full, a Mr. Peter Hawker writing on this subject said,
"My choice of metal was highly approved of by Mr. Clive and Mr. Shardlow, the greatest barrel-forgers in the world ....."
Unfortunately there is no indication of where these gentlemen worked and with no initials I have not been able to identify this Mr. Shardlow, if anyone can help I would be pleased to hear from them.
Big Family Trees
The journal of the Norfolk Family History Society contains a report of a Chinese gentleman in America who has traced his family
back 900 years, I can't claim to rival that but I do have a well authenticated pedigree stretching from the 1200's to the middle of the
1600's and one starting with a marriage in 1715 up to 1900. It’s the mere 50 or so years, one or perhaps two generations,
between which I can't fill. Much of the early work was started by the late Gordon Keys who, shortly before his death, passed it
on to me, Gordon based his research on the Campling Papers a random collection of Shardelow references which, with
additional work on original records, he made into a coherent pedigree. With the help of more recent data I have checked and
added to this to reach the position as stated above, I am convinced the gap can be attributed to the interruption in the keeping of
church registers during the Commonwealth period. The trail seemed to go back to two small Norfolk parishes where the registers
were more complete. I think Campling must have had access to the original registers because the microfilm copies I have been
working with were unreadable in places but I have managed to piece together a Shardlow family there. John Shard(e)low
married Elizabeth ? 24/2/1636 at Hellington, a son Thomas was born the same year and Elizabeth died in 1637. John then married
another Elizabeth (Hubbard) in 1639 at Shelton, they had children baptized and buried at Shelton so it is assumed that after their
marriage they lived there. I had hoped that there would be two or three generations of Shardelow’s which would bridge the gap in my records but there is no indication of this John's parents or where he came from.
New Database
As you know I have been trying to establish the nationality of the first people to use de Shardelow as an identity and later as a
surname so I was keen to try www.surnamedb.com offering free information on the origin of surnames. A request for
SHARDELOW drew a blank but SHARDLOW got the information that it came from the Derbyshire village of that name and states
the first written record was in the 13th Century. It does not say that at that time it was written as "de Shardelow" following a
given name. The web page invites viewers to add any earlier references but clicking the box for this failed to produce the necessary space for entering it.
Origin of the Name
Even members in other parts of the world can hardly have missed reports in the press of "Honours for Cash" alleging that certain
appointments which entitled the bearer to the title "Sir" had been awarded in return for donations to a political party. Without
wishing to enter into the debate I am reminded several Shardelow’s of the 12th and 13th centuries had this title, recent reading
trying to establish ethnic background of these people indicates that it did not hold the distinction it does today. It seems to have
been applied to men pledged to support the king in times of war who supplied their own armour, weapons and a horse. In return
they were granted land sufficient to support this but, when not required in battle they helped in the civil administration. This does
not in itself tell us their nationality but it might be expected that in the early years after 1066 they would have been supporters of the first William and the post does seem to have been passed from father to son.
| Owner of original | Originally created by Gerry Langford (d. 2017) |
| File name | shard/myfolio_01/39_issue.html |
| File Size | 5.11 KB |
| Media ID | 1201 |
| Dimensions | n/a |
| Folio version | v13.0.0.22 (28 Mar 2021) |
| Linked to | Albert George SHARDALOW |
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