This most intriguing surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from Shuttlewood, a hamlet, near Chesterfield in Derbyshire, or from Shuttleworth in Lancashire and Yorkshire (now Littlewood). All of these placenames have the same origin, that is they derive their name from the Olde English pre 7th Century words "scyttel(s)", bar or bolt, with "worth", an enclosure or settlement or "wudu", a wood. This may have denoted an enclosure which was made out of bars of some kind. Modern variants of the surname include Shettlesworth and Shuttleworth, while it was first recorded in the mid 13th Century (see below). Locational surnames were developed when former inhabitants of a place moved to another area, usually to seek work, and were best identified by the name of their birthplace. John de Shutelisworth was recorded in 1338, in the Coucher Book of Whalley Abbey. Further early examples of the surname include the christening of Audrey and Judith daughters of William and Margaret Shuttlewood, at St. Dunstan's, Stepney, London on April 24th 1631 and June 19th 1632, respectively, and the christening of Rachell Shttlewood as spelt at St. Martin Ludgate, London on March 30th 1634. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Henry de Schutlesworth, which was dated 1246, witness in the Assize Court Rolls of Lancashire, during the reign of King Henry 111, "The Frenchman", 1216-1272. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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