Newsletter of the Shard*low Study Group

by Gerry Langford

October 2001

The terrible events of 11 September took place after most of this Newsletter had been written. In response to requests by world leaders to return to normality it has been decided to publish it as usual while remembering all those whose lives have been changed for ever.

DNA Testing
The July 2001 issue of "The Journal of the Guild of One-Name Studies" has an interesting article on a project by the POMEROY one-name group. The object of this was to find out if this name and its variants were descended from a single ancestor. The tests proved conclusively that this was not so.

The Pomeroy Group calculated that there were 850-950 British-based adult males with this name or a variation of it, these were cross referenced with the group's database to select those with no known family tree links. Almost 100 were contacted to see if they wanted to take part, 66 agreed and 51 samples were successfully tested. The other 15 either did not return the necessary sample or the test proved inconclusive.

The point of my reporting this in such detail is to find out if a similar trial would be feasible for our group, it is obvious that, even world wide, we would not have such a large number on which to draw and this may not be statistically viable. Secondly the tests are quite expensive (£100+ per test), the Pomeroy trial was “grant aided' but I don't know by whom or if the same would be available to us.

Personally I would be interested to know if we can all be traced to a single ancestor but I would like to hear other member's opinions.

The laboratory who carried out the tests tell me that, with the comparatively small number of people we could provide, it might be possible to get a conclusive result with only two or three samples. These would have to be from males with one of the Shard*low* variants in families which, so far as we know, have no relationship. Unfortunately those of us whose connection is through a female ancestor are not suitable to provide samples.

From our records I will sort out all the people who would be suitable donors and contact them individually and confidentially to see if they would be prepared to take part.

The test only requires a swab from inside the mouth which can be done by the person himself.

Additional information can be found at the following sites:-

• How DNA test are done: http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/genetics.html
• Commercial DNA testing service in Oxford:.http://www.oxfordancestors.com

Members Names
In the past it has been my habit to use both their given name and surname when introducing members for the first time, after that I have mainly used only their first name but as the group has grown we now have several John’s and Alan’s and, although the latter do have different spelling it is not always clear to whom I am referring. In future I propose to use members full names and I hope you will forgive this more formal approach.

“English Origins” Update
The "Boyds Marriage Index" for Suffolk has now been added to this site and has yielded two Sharedelow marriages.

• 1637 Shardelow Jn. marrying Crampton An Suffolk Archdeacons Transcripts
• 1771 Shardelow An marrying March Jas. Hoxne [PRs presumably]

The date of the first of these would be consistent with the John known to have been the Rector of Beccles and the Vicar of Ilketshall St. Andrew, both in Suffolk

The Parish Register of the latter has a entry dated 16 May 1638 recording the baptism of a John son of John Shardelow and his wife, her name is very difficult to read but looks like Maria. A 1642 entry in the Beccles register refers to John S. and his wife Anna.

Thompson College
Many members will know of the college founded in this Norfolk village by Thomas and John Shardelow in the middle of the 14th Century. Allan Dobney has sent me some excellent photographs of the village including the building which housed the college. Scanned together they make rather a large file and therefore take some time to download so I am only attaching one on this occasion, that of the college building.

Allan tells me the left wing dates from the 1300s and the rest, which makes it into a `T' shape, from about 1500

The founders were the younger sons of Sir John de Shardelowe, Justice of the Common Pleas and his wife Agnes.

The College of five chaplains and a warden was founded to serve a chantry in the church of St Martin in Thompson and pray for ".the souls of Sir John and his wife [parents of the founders] the founders themselves and all the faithful departed".

The college was suppressed in 1541, the site and its revenues were assigned to Sir Edward Knevitt who, the following year sold them to John Maynard, Mercer of London.

The Name
Following up on my discovery of a Shardelow christening in Newcastle on Tyne I obtained the marriage certificate for the parents only to find the groom and his father had both been recorded as Shardlow! As the whole certificate, including the grooms signature, has obviously been written by the same hand I am assuming this is a clerical error but I hope to visit the Newcastle Record Office shortly and sort this out.

Just when I thought I had heard all the variations of spelling David Mason in Canada sent me details of Amelia Sharlough. Not really near enough to be an obvious variant but David has searched extensively and been unable to find any other mention of that spelling so he wondered if I had come across it. Dave's gg grandfather, a soldier, married Amelia while he was serving in India in 1850. If anyone has seen this name and dismissed it as not a variation of Shard*low* please let me know.

There is a possibility that Sharlough was Amelia's married name from a previous marriage and David Mason is checking this.