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Welcome
Welcome & Overview, Background, Myths Exploded, Quotable Quotes, Awards, Site Search

Introduction
About these webpages

Shelvock Location
Geography & Geomorphology

Origins of the Family Name
Earliest origins of the family names

Where & When?
Occurrence of the family names from the C16th - present day

A History of Shelvock Manor
The  place and local environs providing the family name as well as some other associated families

The SHELVOKEs
The story of engineering prowess and  how a family name will become extinct in modern times

The SHELVOCKs
The story of one couple's destiny to preserve the original family name from extinction

A Brief History of Halesowen
The town that became the centre for the modern family name of SHILVOCK

Demography and Statistics
What the data is telling us

Noted People
An offbeat listing of anyone with a notable recorded history

Commonwealth War Graves, Memorials
The names of those who served in the armed forces, those who sacrificed their lives and other stories

Researchers and Family Contacts
Names and email addresses from around the World

Data Bank
Birth, Death & Marriage Indices, census information and other public domain data from around the World. 

SHELVOCK One Name Study:
Family Trees
(1581-present day)

SHILVOCK One Name Study:
Family Trees
(1639-present day)  

"Most Wanted"
Enquiries still seeking an answer - maybe you can help?

SHELVOCK - The Music
6 sets of instrumental music inspired by the place and history.
Composed and played by the Webauthor

Contact Info

- The Family Name -

Origins of the SHELVOCK/SHILVOCK Name

Shelvock was a Domesday Manor in Shropshire (recorded in 1086 on the orders of King William I, "The Conqueror" of England). In the C15th it was acquired through marriage, by the THORNES family. The THORNES were noted merchantmen of nearby Shrewsbury, with origins in the village of Thornes in Staffordshire. THORNES descendants can be found throughout the World today, with many able to trace their families back to the original THORNES of Shelvock. A good Internet search will locate researches of this family, as it is not the intent of this study or this essay to cover this family name in any detail. However, it is worth mentioning here that the THORNES, the Lords of Shelvock, had no known descendants that adopted the name simply as SHELVOCK. There has been some confusion between the early awards of arms to the Thornes of Shelvock & Melverley and the right of Shelvoke, Shelvock or Shilvock families to use them. This is simply not the case.

The root and meaning of the name of Shelvock can be found in post Roman times (post C6th) from the Saxon or Old English ac meaning oak, and scelf meaning shelf of level ground, or flat topped hill. This geomorphology can still be seen today on modern Ordnance Survey maps and at the site of the manor, where an oak tree stands to this day. Please refer to Shelvock Manor & Township for more detail on location.

The Saxon root for the name explains the phonetic spellings of the name, which show that the original emphasis must have been after the 'v', i.e. pronounced shelv'oak or shelf'ak, rather than shel'vock as pronounced most commonly today. This change probably occurred as literacy increased, spelling was standardised and pronounced as written, and so the true origin of the name was forgotten except by a few. I would be interested in hearing from modern families how they pronounce their family name.

Shelvock became one of the eleven "towns" that were part of Ruyton-XI-Towns, however it is clear the Manor and its lands were important for a thousand years until its decline two centuries ago. Sir Arthur Conan DOYLE, author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, is credited as remarking that Ruyton had barely enough houses to make one town, let alone eleven! This is still true today, with many of the "towns" being represented by only a small number of cottages or a farm. Shelvock is represented by only a single C19th farmhouse with associated outbuildings from a much earlier period.

We can be sure that the family name of SHELVOCK refers to the Manor of Shelvock and the surrounding area where the THORNES family resided in the C16th, simply due to the earliest occurrences of the name closest to that place. 

It is known that Richard THORNES, and the inherited family line through his brother Jeffrey, continued with the THORNES name. It is interesting to note, however, that the first BMD reference in nearby Fitz in 1581 is for the baptism of a daughter of Jeffrey SHELVOCK. This early reference may be a shortened form of "Jeffrey THORNES of Shelvock" but cannot be verified. From about the C15th it is known that English surnames became more formalised, often from the place the families resided, and both SHELVOCK and THORNES family names can be found in the same period around the Ruyton area. A slightly earlier reference (Church records) has a John or Johannes SHELVOCK as vicar/rector at Ruyton from 1568, and then at Smethcott from 1589. There is no proof the two family names are in fact linked except when used as "THORNES of Shelvock". There is no evidence that any of the earliest recorded SHELVOCKs can be considered the heads of today's families.

It is entirely possible that some later SHELVOCKs and SHILVOCKs are descended from unidentified junior branches of the THORNES family who may have had their name "THORNES of Shelvock" shortened to simply SHELVOCK. Jeffrey, for example, is simply noted in historical texts as having "other children". Certainly, the name will also have come from other families associated with the Manor, such as servants and tenant farmers, and others who lived in close proximity. Ath of Shelvock, as an example, is the earliest mentioned by name in a Manor Roll of 1374. Ath is an Old English word for "dweller", and may have been a real mediaeval name or simply referred to a tenant farmer who lived and worked at Shelvock.

The first names used in the C16th & C17th by both THORNES and SHELVOCK families are similar. It is uncertain whether this is evidence to support a family connection, or simply an indicator of the popular names of the time, or the adoption of the names of patrons and landowners by poorer families for whom they worked. We are unlikely to ever know as the required records have not survived. If researchers of THORNES have more information of a THORNES branch becoming SHELVOCK, then please contact me. This will be as close as most of us will come to the roots of this surname.

© Mark A S Grace, September 2008 updated

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