Shropshire

This is an English locational surname of post medieval 17th century origins, and some considerable mystery. Locational surnames by their very nature were given to people after they left their native village or region, and moved eleswhere. It was then, it is remains so in the late 20th century, that one of the easiest methods of identification was to call a person by the name of the place from which they originated. There is one major problem. This well known and proven theory does not apply to this name! The nameholders called Shropshire or sometimes Shropsheir, do not seem to have left their home county, the early records find the nameholders happily esconsed around the little towns of Ludlow and Market Drayton. Furthermore the recordings are late, by several centuries. Locational surnames were amongst the first created and then usually between the 12th and 14th century. So this name is a real mystery, and particularly so as the county name itself is one of the earliest of all recordings. "Scrobbesbyrigscir" appears in the famous Anglo-Saxon Chronicles in the year 1050, and then again in the 1086 Domesday Book as "Sciropescire". The name means "the burg or castle of Scrobb", an early knight. Examples of the surname recording taken from the Shropshire registers include John Shropshire of Great Bolas, on January 20th 1636, Thomas Shropshire of Caverly, on October 21st 1639, and in London, Samuel Shrapshear, at St Gregorys's by St Paul's cathedral, on June 15th 1661. The first known recording of the surname may be that of Richard Shropshire of Ludlow, on February 4th 1598, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1st 1558 - 1603.