Recorded in the spellings of Oswick, Othick and possibly others, this is a very rare English locational surname, with probably pre 7th century Olde English and Norse-Viking antecedents. It would seem to originate from a now "lost" medieval place probably called "Osa-wic" or similar, meaning "the farm (wic) of Osa", the latter being an early personal name believed to have been "imported" by the Vikings. There are many places in England with the suffix "wic(k)", and it is possible that "Osa-wic" has simply had its spelling transposed, but if this is the case we have been unable to trace the ancestry. Nor is there anything similar in the lost village lists of England, although this is not unusual as many of the five thousand or so lost places were either single farms or hamlets of a few houses. Today the only memory of these places is the surviving "modern" surname, although its spelling may well have moved far from the original name. The first proven recording that we have been able to find, but almost certainly not the first recording, is that of Jane Oswick, who married a William Paynter at St Leonards church, Clerkenwell, London, on December 17th 1868. This was during the reign of Queen Victoria, 1837 - 1901.

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