I
found a new cousin recently. Or I should say she found me.
Karen,
whose maiden name is Shepherd, wrote to me for information she is compiling
about her family for her mother’s 90th birthday next year.
“My name is Karen P…. (nee Shepherd) and I
live in South Devon. For my mother’s 90th birthday next May I am working with a
local genealogist to find out about my father’s family history about which I
know very little except that the family lived in Cornwood. My father was Peter
James Morris Shepherd (b. 1926, d. 2003), my grandfather William Alfred
Shepherd (m. Eva Morris), great grandfather James Richard Shepherd (m.
Priscilla Bowden), & my father thought that my great-great-grandparents
were John and Betsey Shepherd, although he was not certain. I have read your article on the Shepheard
family and am wondering if we are related.
I should be very grateful if you could let me know if you have come
across any information to that effect.”
Karen
also thought that my father, whose picture she found on my blogsite, had some
resemblance to her father, “particularly
with respect to the nose and eyes.” She may be right. I kind of thought
they, like many Shepheard men, had similarities with foreheads.
 |
William
Calvin Shepheard and Peter James Morris Shepherd, both in their 20s.
My
immediate reaction, after Karen’s first message was that we may not be related.
I did not recognize the names of her father and grandfather. I also knew that
the John and Betsey Shepherd she referenced, and about whom I had written in an
article in the Journal of One-Name
Studies, had only one son and he died at the age of five.
Karen’s
statement that her ancestors were from Cornwood intrigued me, though. There was
another Shepheard family in the area, not related to me, who had arrived in the
late 19th century from South Pool, Devon. I considered that Karen’s
family might be related to them
The
names she gave for her great-grandparents, James Richard Shepherd and Priscilla
Bowden, struck a chord. I knew we had a James Rickard Shepheard in the
family and, when I checked my tree, the birth and death dates were the same and
the wife was, indeed, Priscilla Bowden. If the name Rickard was right for Karen’s
ancestor, then that made us 5th cousins, once removed.
Surname
spelling is often a problem in our family. Even today many people want to leave
out the ‘a’ in my name. But I have traced my direct ancestors back to the early
1600s and the spelling has never changed, at least with people who were
literate. Those that could not read or write, often took on the spelling that
the parish clerk or vicar recorded for them, so our family ends up with a
number of different variants.
I
went back into my Cornwood baptism, marriage and death records to see when
Karen’s family lost their ‘a’. It turned out the change happened for good with
her great-grandfather’s grandfather (her 3rd great-grandfather),
Thomas SHEPHEARD, my 4th great-granduncle:
·
Thomas’s
1771 baptism was recorded in the church register as Thomas SHEPHERD, although
his father signed his name as Richard SHEPHEARD in the Cornwood marriage
register when he wed Mary COLLINS, who also signed, in 1761. Richard and Mary
were my 5th and Karen’s 4th great-grandparents. Old church
register entries are not always accurate for names, as vicars often spelled
them in whatever form they thought best or the way they heard them, not
necessarily the right way. Documents on which individuals themselves signed
their names are better indicators of correctness.
·
On
Thomas's 1798 Cornwood marriage record, he signed also his name as SHEPHEARD
which tells us he thought that was the correct and accepted spelling. Ann
Sanders also signed her name. One of their witnesses was John SHEPHEARD,
Thomas’s brother and my 4th great-grandfather. By the way, John
married a first cousin, who signed her name very boldly as Jane Treby
SHEPHEARD.
·
The
Cornwood baptism records show the names of the children of Thomas and Ann in a
variety of ways (It seems most vicars over the years all tried to change our
surname):
o
Mary
SHEPPARD (1798)
o
Richard
SHEPPARD (1800)
o
William
SHEPPARD (1804)
o
Thomas
SHEPPARD (1806)
o
Amy
SHEPHERD (1809)
o
Eliza
SHEPHERD (1811)
o
James
SHEPHERD (1813)
o
John
SHEPHEARD (1815) – The vicar got this one right!
o
Samuel
SHEPPARD (1816)
o
Harriet
SHEPHERD (1819)
o
Sarah
SHEPHERD (1822)
·
Thomas’s
1834 Cornwood burial register entry shows his name as SHEPHERD. His death
predates civil registration so we do not have a formal death certificate that
would show the true spelling of his name.
·
The
1846 civil death certificate for Thomas’s wife Ann, however, shows her surname
as SHEPHEARD, widow of Thomas SHEPHEARD. Her Cornwood burial record also shows
her name as SHEPHEARD. Clearly the family was still using this spelling their
entire lives.
None
of the children of Thomas and Ann appear to have used SHEPHEARD, at least
according to parish and civil records.
James,
2nd great-grandfather of Karen and son of Thomas and Ann (my 1st
cousin, five times removed), was recorded on the Cornwood baptism as SHEPHERD.
But the record of his 1848 marriage to Elizabeth RICKARD has him as James
SHEPHEARD. On this record, however, both James and Elizabeth made their marks
indicating neither were literate. In this case the Vicar may well have known
how to spell his surname, from association with his family. But, from later records
we have, James did not use the ‘a’ in his surname.
Three
of their four children were baptized in Cornwood and the fourth in Devonport as:
·
Elizabeth
Ann SHEPHERD (1849) – GRO certificate SHEPHEARD
·
Susanna
Rickard SHEPHARD (1852) – GRO certificate SHEPHERD
·
James
Rickard SHEPHERD (1854) – GRO certificate SHEPHERD
·
Mary
Jane SHEPHERD (1861) – GRO certificate SHEPHERD
Interestingly,
the first child was recorded officially as SHEPHEARD but the other three were
not. On Elizabeth Ann’s birth record, the informant was her mother, who again
only made her mark which may indicate SHEPHEARD was not their preferred
spelling. All of the children used the SHEPHERD surname throughout their own
lives, as evidenced on various GRO certificates.
Not
that it necessarily means a lot, but the family were recorded on the various
census records as:
·
1851
– SHIPHARD
·
1861
– SHEPHARD
·
1871
to 1891 – SHEPHERD
Both
James (in 1897) and Elizabeth (in 1886) were buried in Cornwood as SHEPHERD. In addition to have been shown on their death
certificates, the name is recorded in both the burial register and carved on
their headstone.
James
Rickard SHEPHERD, Karen’s great-grandfather (my 2nd cousin, four
times removed), married Priscilla Mary Bowden in 1876. He signed his name as
SHEPHERD.
James
Rickard and Priscilla Mary had four children, all born in Cornwood, and all
registered with the SHEPHERD name. James (in 1912) and Priscilla (in 1941) both
died and were buried in Cornwood as SHEPHERD.
The
conclusion for this particular family line is that James SHEPHEARD/SHEPHERD
(1813-1897) abandoned his ‘a’ sometime after his marriage, perhaps after the
birth of his first child, they adopted the surname spelling with no ‘a’. From
then on, all of James’s descendants used SHEPHERD.
At
least one brother of James – John – who I wrote about in an article in the Journal of One-Name Studies (Volume 12,
Issue 4, October-December 2015), also adopted the use of SHEPHERD, although
some of his children reverted back to using the ‘a’.
What
we do not know is why this line adopted a variation of their surname without
the ‘a’. Perhaps the vicar finally got to him.
