Westwick

This is an English locational surname. It originates from any or all of the villages called 'Westwick' in the counties of Cambridge, Norfolk, Durham, and Yorkshire. All the early recordings however are from the county of Cambridge and presumably the village of Westwick. The name means 'The dairy farm (wic) to the west (of the village)', and not surprisingly there are similar places called Northwick, Southwick, and Eastwick, as well as dialectally transposed variants such as Northwich, Southwark, and possibly Eswick, although the only version of that spelling is in the Shetland Isles. Locational surnames are either the names of the lord of the manor, which may well be the case here, or more usually they are 'from' names. That is to say that they were names originally given to 'strangers' who had left their original homes. The easiest way to identify such a person was to call him, or sometimes her, by the name of place from whence they came. Spelling being at best erratic and local dialects very thick, often lead to the development of 'sounds like' spellings. As it happens perhaps because the elements were in regular use, the surname has retained its original spelling almost unchanged. These early recordings include examples such as John de Westwik and Katarina de Westwyc in the famous Hundred Rolls of the year 1273. The Hundred Rolls for each English county gave every known land owner or land holder, and as such indicated that the person concerned was of some status. In fact the 'Westwicks of Cambridge' appear no less than three times in these rolls of King Edward 1st of England, (1272 - 1307).