Darwood
One-Name Study

Topics

• About the Darwood One-Name Study
• Origin of the surname
• Frequency of the name
• Distribution of the name
• Data
• Contact Details

About the Darwood One-Name Study

For many years, I've been researching our Family name and am delighted there are hundreds of Darwoods around the world today and you are probably related! My initial research was spent in the open galleries of Somerset House, the then archive of the General Registry Office in The Strand, London, copying the Birth, Marriage and Death (BMD) records of 2000+ UK Darwoods. I first wrote to all 104 Darwoods listed in the UK Phone books in 1973 (an exercise I repeated in 2003) and as a result, have since enjoyed meeting some super Darwoods with interesting backgrounds and corresponding with many more. Two key aspects emerged from the various Society of Genealogists' events that I attended: firstly, all research must be thorough You should trust nothing - You must corroborate everything! and secondly, complete your Birth Brief by finding each of your 16 great great grandparents. I spent years of tediously ploughing through the many paper records that I had accumulated and straining over microfiche and film as time permitted (not often) before finally completing my Birth Brief with the invaluable help of recent internet records.

Complementing my surname research, I’m equally interested in the social history of my ancestors, for instance being fascinated to discover that my great grandfather’s town of Wisbech had the lowest life expectancy in the whole of England during the 1840’s, the contaminated water supplies leading to repeated outbreaks of cholera. Since joining The Guild, I’ve concentrated on the Darwoods and welcome contact with all those who share our unusual surname, wherever in the world they currently live.

Origin of the surname

Some folk conjecture that Darwood is a locative name, meaning “an important person who lived by or in a wood, whose occupation was in the manufacture of seed crops” and suggest our name derives from the ancient Adamic generation. There was a medieval Lincolnshire settlement named DARWOOD but all that now remains is a 15th century House and a farm. Another possible derivation of 1640 links it to the place of Darwent, a Derbyshire settlement now submerged under a reservoir.

Others believe Darwood to be an occupational name, meaning those who guarded (ie door-ward) the king’s room, and this has some credibility in ancient Scottish records where in 1228, Alan Durward was granted a large estate in the Dee valley. Family folklore suggests that all Darwoods originate from just two English families but I have yet to prove this!

Frequency of the name

• in the 1841 census, there were 79 Darwoods in England and Wales
• by 1881, this had risen to 164 Darwoods, predominately in London and East Anglia
• in 1911, the Darwoods totalled 223
• by 2002, an official database indicates 362 Darwoods living in England and Wales, confirming that ours remains a fairly unusual surname.
• a further 30 Darwoods live in Canada, 83 in the US and a sprinkling in Australia and South Africa

I have records of 681 marriages registered between 1837 and 2009 – does this include your ancestors?

Distribution of the name

The first recorded Darwoods appear in 1528 and both The Protestation Returns of 1641 and The Hearth Tax of 1674 show many Darwood families occurring in Huntingdonshire (where my ancestors lived) with other early records showing Darwoods in Gloucestershire and London at the same time.

By 1850, the devastating effects of the Agricultural Revolution had led to a mass exodus from the land to the towns, and for the first time, urban populations equalled rural populations. Many Darwood families had also migrated from Huntingdonshire/Cambridgeshire to other areas for work, especially to London (my branch), the Midlands and Cumbria. One example is Arthur, who aged just 12 and being the eldest of 11 children, ran away from the family farm in Huntingdonshire to make his fortune in Grimsby - his Darwood dynasty continues to this day.

Other Darwoods ventured abroad; an entrepreneurial John Darwood had become established in The Far East, developing a huge timber empire in Burma, building The Strand hotel in Yangon which was regarded as “the finest hostelry east of Suez” and other business interests in what was then Rangoon.

David Darwood, the Wimblington miller, emigrated with his family to the USA in the mid-19th century, eventually establishing the Texas Darwoods of today whilst in the early 20th century, two teenage brothers escaped from their overbearing stepfather in Huntingdonshire to found today’s Washington branches; other Darwoods emigrated to Australia, Canada and more recently, some travelled to South Africa.

A Darwoods House was sold in St Ives in 1945 and Darwoods Place still exists there, a Darwood Court is in Huntingdon and another in N. London. A Darwood Street appears in Plymouth, a Darwood hotel in Ayr Scotland whilst in Derbyshire, there is a Darwoods Lane near Bathhurst Colliery. Further afield, there are Darwoods Gardens in Harrison County, Mississippi, and the Sheriff's office in Augusta, California is in Darwood Drive - no significance, of course!

Our name also appears in Julia Parks’ romantic, historical novel “To Marry an Heiress – it will take a fortune to restore Darwood Hall to glory”, published in 2003.

Data

I need your help, please. Although I do have many records, I’ve hit various brickwalls in my research on the Darwoods – your information could be vital in moving us forwards, so please make contact.

I have complete Darwood records of all BMD references from 1837, the various census records from 1841, the Boyd Marriage lists and a huge amount of un-indexed Darwood material, collected over the years. As time becomes available, I try and match all these Darwoods into one of the 28 Family trees that I have currently identified and my aim, with your help, is to link these various trees together – although this is taking me a lifetime, it is very rewarding. I am delighted to help you with a specific query by referring to my substantial paper records, but please don’t ask for a copy of everything I hold!

There are the usual family rogues (blacksmith John sentenced to transportation for assault in 1838; Sarah, aged 20, convicted of murder in 1844; poultry farmer John convicted of manslaughter in 1939); however, these are outnumbered by the many Darwoods involved in public life over the years, including Sir John Darwood, a High Court judge and his wife who ran a successful horse-racing business at Newmarket. Fortunately, most Darwoods were ordinary country folk; farmers, shoe/bootmakers, millers and publicans living and working in the Fens, with the trawlermen of Grimsby, the miners of Cumbria and Durham and the coffee-house keepers and carriage builders of London living out their lives often in difficult economic situations, yet each of whom is a part of our rich ancestral heritage. Your information will help to put human detail onto sometimes bare family trees, so do make contact.

Contact details

For further information, contact:

Mr John Darwood
7 Pilgrims Wood,
West Lane,
East Grinstead,
West Sussex
RH19 4HH
UNITED KINGDOM
E-mail:

This page last updated 4 February 2012.

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Profiles of other one-name studies registered with the Guild may be found here.