SURNAME CHANGES AND NATIONAL EVENTS

From 1476 to 1541 there were no more new surnames that looked or sounded anything like Dewick, but from 1542 the changes occur regularly, almost every twenty years. That these surname changes occurred at the same time as monumental changes were happening nationally and globally, spilling over into ordinary life and upsetting the status quo is hardly surprising.

The New World of America was opening up, the feudal system in England was disintegrating, Magellan had circumnavigated the Earth, the Protestant Reformation was in full force and Henry VIII had broken with the Catholic Church over his six wives, dying in 1547.

Under Henry VIII everyone had to change their religion from Catholic to Protestant and take an oath of allegiance to him. He, and his successor Edward -- who reigned from 1547 to 1553 -- stripped churches of their adornments and relics, abolished saints and pilgrimages, promoted English rather than Latin texts, sold off church land and encouraged priests to marry. We also have Henry VIII to thank for the registration of parish births, marriages and deaths which started about 1538.

After Edward's premature death, his Catholic sister Mary became queen and undid just about everything that her father and brother had done. During Mary I's brief reign from 1553 to 1558 England became Catholic again. It was pandemonium.

Then Elizabeth became queen, reigning from 1558 to 1603, and undid everything that Mary had done. England became Protestant again -- and the religious upheavals continued until the last Catholic monarch, James II, was ousted by William and Mary Orange in 1688.

Robart Duick had a perfect birth registration -- 02 April 1546 at Saxelby, Leicester -- but his children, and those of others, were not registered during Mary's reign and even throughout Elizabeth's reign. From 1553 to about 1600, then, just about all births are 'born about'.

Is it any wonder that so many surname changes occur during this period?

By the time Queen Elizabeth I came to power, the feudal system in England was defunct. The Roman Catholic Church in England -- through which most the old nobles retained their power -- had been replaced with the Protestant Church England and many the great noble estates fell into new hands.

Also, England was becoming a global power. People were on the move, looking for work, looking for a new life and coming into contact, probably for the first time, with people whose accent was different from theirs. If you cannot imagine how some names ended up with strange spellings then try saying them with a variety of thick accents!

Some common people were also learning how to read and write, but there was no standardized spelling. Also, Latin, rather than English, was still the language of the scribes -- most whom had been Catholic schooled in heavily accented Ireland or Scotland.

While many kept their feudal surname others may have chosen a new name but because all of the new names looked or sounded like the original, it is more likely that the scribe recorded surnames as he saw fit, according to his abilities.