During
the course of researching our family history, one of my aspirations was to
identify the source of the name “Shapard.” In essence, to answer the query of
when and where did our name originate, and who was the first Shapard? Our
surname is unique because of the spelling, being a variant of “Shepherd,” which
is derived from the old English words “sceap” (meaning “sheep”) and “weard” or
“hierde” (meaning “guardian” or “herdsman”).
The earliest record of this surname dates to southern England in 1279
A.D., being William Sepherd of Oxfordshire and Walter Le Schepherde of
Cambridgeshire.
Research
suggests that our Shapard surname evolved in England, roughly between 1600 and
1650, where it most likely branched off from the Shepherd surname trunk as an
alternative spelling. This theory is supported by the fact that, there seems to
be no spellings of "Shapard" located in the early records
of England prior to about 1600, whereas, the “Shepard/Shepherd”
spelling can be traced back centuries earlier. The question we
really need to inquire is when did the “Shapard” spelling become prevalent
within our family tree?
The two
previous books written about our family, Shapard, A Family History
(2004) by the Shapard Family Association and A Shapard Family 1623-1980
by Sarah Marsh Shapard have erroneously suggested that our surname branched off
from the Shepherd line in America in the 1790s on account of our
forefather, "Lewis Thomas Shapard." This idea was mostly based
on the letters printed in William and Mary College Quarterly Historical
Magazine in the 1920-1940s, authored by William Shepard. My research
over the last decade has discredited these letters as forgeries, and
comically even our famed forefather "Lewis Thomas
Shapard" was found to be a creation of William Shepard's
faulty research. In actuality, "Lewis Thomas Shapard"
was not ONE man but TWO brothers - Lewis Shapard and Thomas Shapard.
Nevertheless, our surname was clearly not created by Lewis Shapard (c. 1773 -
1833), it was much older, and was traced to his father, William Shapard (c.
1741-1807).
Research
shows that William used our “Shapard” surname throughout his lifetime. We
can follow the name through his migratory history from Granville County, North
Carolina (1785-1807), back to Cumberland County, Virginia (1762-1785), back to
King and Queen County, Virginia (1741-1762). Our name clearly is older in
America than anyone suspected, thus far, it pre-dates the
Revolutionary War, being prevalent well into the Colonial Era when Virginia
was a colony of England. Although William is not the source of our namesake, he
does hold a very important position in our lineage, which will be explained
soon.
Further
research stretched our surname back an additional generation to
William's father, Samuel Shapard (c. 1700-1752). One fact that must be
faced as we descend deep into the annals of history is that literacy
was limited and the modern rules of spelling did not apply. Spelling of a surname was often arbitrary and
dependent on how a word sounded to the recording scribe. The Researcher’s Guide
to American Genealogy offers us some insight on why this may have occurred;
“…the early settlers of America were emigrants from many foreign lands. There
were many accents, and when records were made the scribe wrote what he heard,
accent and all.” In addition, “Most persons who did write did not concern
themselves particularly with so-called standard spellings, but rather spelled
words just as they sounded – phonetically – with local accents.” This
issue is never more clearly illustrated than in the scribing of the Last
Will and Testament of Samuel Shapard (c. 1700-1752), whereby the recording scribe
spelled our surname three different ways in this single document.
While
variations in the spelling of our surname are abundant in the documents that
have survived (deeds, wills, tax lists, etc.), it must be remembered that all
of these documents were recorded by independent scribes, with their own rules
for spelling. However, when we observe the actual signatures made by our
ancestors on the early records, we discover that Samuel (c. 1700-1752) and all his
male children (Samuel II, Robert, John and William) were not only educated,
being able to read and write, but they all consistently signed their surname as
“Shapard.” It is only in later generations, when literacy was abandoned or when
the Shapard father-figure died prematurely, that the surname changed to the “Shepard”
or “Shepherd” spelling.
The
records show, without a doubt, that Samuel (c. 1700-1752) was using the “Shapard”
spelling as early as 1739; which, thus far, is the earliest known American
record of our surname within our lineage being spelled correctly in a
document. Unfortunately, King and Queen County, Virginia, where Samuel Shapard
resided, suffered the loss of nearly all their early records. Because
of this, there is a great void in the amount of information regarding
the early Shapard family in this county which can never be recovered. In
regards to our surname, however, there seem to be no other Shapard's in the
early records of Virginia prior to Samuel.
The more
I research, the more I have come to believe that Samuel Shapard (c. 1700-1752)
may have been the first of our family to arrive in America from England.
In addition, I believe that he brought the “Shapard” spelling uncorrupted from
England to America, which is contrary to everything we have previously believed
about the origins of our namesake. It is estimated that Samuel’s father would
have been born circa 1670s; and, if educated, he would have acquired a
grammatical consistency when spelling his name, which would have been
perpetuated through the lineage of his educated male children. The birth,
death, marriage and christening records of England document “Shapards,"
beginning circa 1600, which surged in the 1650s and 1670s. The
greatest prevalence of this surname seems to come from the counties of
Gloucestershire and Norfolk, England, which may be the place of our origin
prior to America. If this is in fact the case, the unique spelling of
our surname may be the key to unlocking our origin in England.
In
regards to Samuel's (c. 1700-1752) legacy in America, all of Samuel's sons (Samuel
II, Robert, John and William) used the “Shapard” spelling. Samuel II (c.
1729-1781) moved to Henrico County, Virginia, and had numerous children before
his death in 1781. Interestingly, all three of Samuel II’s sons (Samuel III,
Reuben and William) were “infants” at the time of his death, and appear to have
adopted the "Shepard" spelling to represent their surname
when they reached adulthood. Robert migrated to Goochland County,
Virginia, where he had numerous children. All of Robert's sons (Samuel, William
B., Benjamin and Thomas) were illiterate and adopted the "Shepard"
spelling to represent their surname. John eventually migrated to Granville
County, North Carolina, where he vanished from the records in 1781. As of yet,
there is no evidence of children in which to carry on his surname. William, as
discussed earlier, migrated frequently yet retained the “Shapard” spelling
as did his sons. Thus while William was not the creator of our
surname, William was the only male line to perpetuate the “Shapard”
spelling in subsequent generations to the present day. Therefore, William Shapard (c. 1741 – 1807)
is our family’s “Adam,” the one who carried the name to every Shapard in modern
times in America - the source where all current Shapard lines converge.
Therefore, in
answer to the question of when the “Shapard” spelling became prevalent in our
pedigree, we have learned that, contrary to past beliefs, our namesake (spelled
as “Shapard”) is much older than previously imagined. It appears to
have originated in England in the 1600s and come to America, possibly
with Samuel Shapard, circa 1720. Further research will be needed to test these
hypotheses and develop a better understanding of our English origins.
