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The Skirrows of Baildon - My Skirrow family tree
SKIRROW - Origin and Distribution
A complete search of
all the UK telephone directories (1992) revealed around
150 entries in the name Skirrow. Most people now have a telephone, and most families have an entry in the fathers name, so this can be taken as roughly the
number of Skirrow families living. Children with the name will be about two
per family, giving 300 more Skirrows.
Most entries concentrated around Bradford and Leeds, with few in Scotland or
the South, but a larger number in Lancashire. This would seem to confirm the
likelyhood that the first Skirrows came from the village of Sharow, a Yorkshire village near
Ripon, a little North of Bradford and Baildon:
Skirrow, - Local, 'of Sharrow'
(?), a village, a mile from Ripon. Possibly some spot nearer the Lancashire border
of the West Riding. v. Sharrow
Thomas de Skyrhow, 1379: P T.
Yorks. p. 290
1570. William Skerowe, of Wray, in Melling: Lancashire Wills at Richmond, i. 256.
1611. Babt. - Margaret, d. Henry
Skerrow: St. Antholin (London), p.48.
1620-1. Harman Curital and Frances
Skerro: Marriage Lic. (London), ii. 95.
1634. Thomas Skirrow, of Wray:
Lancashire Wills at Richmond, i.256
1638 Chistopher Skirroe, of Wray:
ibid. West Rid. Court Dir., 1: London, 1;
Leeds (Scurrah), 2; Liverpool (Scurry),
1; Boston (U.S.) (Scurrah), 1.
Entry from A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames -
Bardsey:
Early Skirrows
A search of Who s Who and Who was Who revealed one entry:
Skirrow, Major Arthur George Walker, D.S.O. 1919, b. 26-9-1862 son of Walker
Skirrow and Emily Rush m. 1891, served in Zululand, Singapore, Gibraltor, Boer
War 1899
Salterton, Devon, died 26-3-1941.
A search of directories for Yorkshire revealed one entry in Kelly s for Leeds
1893:
William Edward Skirrow, 2 Russel St, Bingley, Yorks - Private resident. This simply
means he wanted the prestige of paying for an entry, but gives no profession,
perhaps a mill owner?
The International Genealogical Index, (IGI) Microfilm, which can be viewed at
the Mormon Centres in most British towns contains 12 pages of Skirrows. This
is not a complete list, just a list compiled by Mormons, mostly from parish records. Dates
range from 1600 to 1836 but not beyond 1837 when civil registation became compulsory,
as the data is collected from parish registers mostly. Almost all the entries are from
the Bradford area - Bradford, Otley, Calverly, Bingley, Leeds, Halifax, Baildon,
and Idle feature the most.
One group of Skirrows, all from Bingley, stands out in the IGI as having latin
sounding names; Thomae, Edverdi, Edvardus, Eduardi, Georgius, Gulielmus, Mercia,
Johannis, Katherina, and Timotheus. All appear in the period 1669-1679. This could be
a hangover from the Holy Roman Empire or perhaps they came from Italy.
Research interests noted for Skirrow are:
1618-1680, Melling, Lancs, England, (37524), by Wenger, Marjorie, 3178 Meadowbrook
Drive, Concord, CA94519 USA. - Genealogical Research Dir. Nat. and Int.
1991, P509.
19c Tatham Lancs. by J Watson 13524-110 St, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T5E 4Z2.
- National Genealogical Directory, 1982-83.