Sawyer
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Sawyer Surname Genealogy
The Old English saghen, meaning "to saw," was the root of the occupational name Sawyer, one who made his living by sawing wood. Sometimes Sawyer was abbreviated to Sayer. In America, Jewish names like Seger were often anglicized to Sawyer.
Select Sawyer Resources on The Internet
England. Some early surname forms were Sagher. But Sawyer had started to appear by the 14th century. The name crops up mainly along the East Coast of England, to some extent in Yorkshire but much more so in East Anglia and in Kent.
One Sawyer line traces itself to Cawston in Norfolk in the 1500's and possibly earlier. Sir Edmund Sawyer was auditor for the city of London. He purchased Heywood near Maidenhead in Berkshire in 1627 and this manor stayed with the family for the next two hundred years. Two Sawyers became Royal Navy admirals in the 18th century. Other branches of this family were to be found in Cambridge and in Kettering in Northamptonshire.
A Sawyer family in Kent were, appropriately enough, carpenters. Based in Dover, Willard Sawyer was a carpenter who became internationally known as the first professional maker of a man powered vehicle. He set up his business in 1838, the year after Queen Victoria came to the throne. The four-wheeled velocipede on which he cycled from London to Brighton is now an exhibit in the London Science Museum.
America. The early Sawyers in New England have been traced in Eleanor Sawyer's 1995 book Sawyer Families of New England, 1636-1900. Among the first arrivals were:
Moses Sawyer was an early settler on Shelter Island on Long Island Sound in the 1760's. A Sawyer family was a pioneer family in upstate New York, transferring from Dutchess to Schuyler county in the 1780's. Philetus Sawyer moved from upstate New York in Wisconsin in 1847 where he worked in the lumber industry. He ended up serving two terms as the Senator for Wisconsin. The family home on Algoma Boulevard in Oshkosh is now the Oshkosh Public Museum.
Sawyers were also in Virginia and the Carolinas by the 1700's, the most prominent of these being the Sawyers along the Pasquotank river in Camden, North Carolina. Enoch Sawyer grew wealthy there by managing the port. Brother Lemuel Sawyer was a local congressman and a writer of some repute, although his 1844 autobiography did not go down well:
He blew his wife's money and died in poverty.
Family accounts show Sawyer migrations south to Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas. Hannibal, Missouri is known as Tom Sawyer's town, being the childhood home of his creator Mark Twain.
Canada. The first Sawyer in Canada was probably James Sawyer, born in New Carlisle, Quebec in 1764. His descendants were to be found there and in New Brunswick and Maine as well.
Early Sawyers came also from across the border. Noadiah Sawyer from Vermont,a Loyalist, settled in Hamilton township, Ontario around 1810. And the Rev. Joseph Sawyer was a Methodist missionary from upstate New York who preached across the border on the Niagara circuit. One of his converts was a young Ojibwe Indian who took the name of Joseph Sawyer on his baptism. He and his son David Sawyer were to become chiefs of the Ojibwe Indians and to lead them to their new reservation in Tuscarora township.
Africa. The Sawyers have been a prominent Americo-Liberian family in Liberia. Amos Sawyer from this family served as an interim President in the early 1990's. Violence in the country has meant that many of these Sawyers now live in the US.
Select Sawyer Miscellany
Select Sawyer Names
Sir Edmund Sawyer was auditor to the Exchequer Court in London in the early 1600's.
Willard Sawyer was the bicycle pioneer from Kent with his development of "velocipedes" in the 1840's.
Tom Sawyer was the lead character in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which first appeared in 1876.
Philetus Sawyer was the Senator for Wisconsin from 1881 to 1893.
Diane Sawyer from Louisville, Kentucky is a well-known TV newscaster.
Select Sawyers Today
Select Index of Names
The Origin/Spread of Surnames
The Old English saghen, meaning "to saw," was the root of the occupational name Sawyer, one who made his living by sawing wood. Sometimes Sawyer was abbreviated to Sayer. In America, Jewish names like Seger were often anglicized to Sawyer.
Select Sawyer Resources on The Internet
- Our Family Genealogy Pages. Sawyers of upstate New York.
- Sawyer Lines. Sawyer family in South Carolina.
- The Sawyer Family of Smithville, Texas. Sawyers from Louisiana in Texas.
England. Some early surname forms were Sagher. But Sawyer had started to appear by the 14th century. The name crops up mainly along the East Coast of England, to some extent in Yorkshire but much more so in East Anglia and in Kent.
One Sawyer line traces itself to Cawston in Norfolk in the 1500's and possibly earlier. Sir Edmund Sawyer was auditor for the city of London. He purchased Heywood near Maidenhead in Berkshire in 1627 and this manor stayed with the family for the next two hundred years. Two Sawyers became Royal Navy admirals in the 18th century. Other branches of this family were to be found in Cambridge and in Kettering in Northamptonshire.
A Sawyer family in Kent were, appropriately enough, carpenters. Based in Dover, Willard Sawyer was a carpenter who became internationally known as the first professional maker of a man powered vehicle. He set up his business in 1838, the year after Queen Victoria came to the throne. The four-wheeled velocipede on which he cycled from London to Brighton is now an exhibit in the London Science Museum.
America. The early Sawyers in New England have been traced in Eleanor Sawyer's 1995 book Sawyer Families of New England, 1636-1900. Among the first arrivals were:
- Edward, William, and Thomas Sawyer, three brothers in Ipswich, Mass in 1636 (one line of descendants were to become merchants and shipowners in Gloucester, Mass).
- William Sawyer, one of the founders of Newbury, Mass, in 1640
- Thomas
and Mary Sawyer, who settled in
Lancaster, Mass. in the 1640's.
Moses Sawyer was an early settler on Shelter Island on Long Island Sound in the 1760's. A Sawyer family was a pioneer family in upstate New York, transferring from Dutchess to Schuyler county in the 1780's. Philetus Sawyer moved from upstate New York in Wisconsin in 1847 where he worked in the lumber industry. He ended up serving two terms as the Senator for Wisconsin. The family home on Algoma Boulevard in Oshkosh is now the Oshkosh Public Museum.
Sawyers were also in Virginia and the Carolinas by the 1700's, the most prominent of these being the Sawyers along the Pasquotank river in Camden, North Carolina. Enoch Sawyer grew wealthy there by managing the port. Brother Lemuel Sawyer was a local congressman and a writer of some repute, although his 1844 autobiography did not go down well:
""This book - a frank disclosure of his
gambling, wastefulness, dissipation, chicanery, and tawdry love affairs
- must be one of the most self-condemning documents in all American
letters."
He blew his wife's money and died in poverty.
Family accounts show Sawyer migrations south to Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas. Hannibal, Missouri is known as Tom Sawyer's town, being the childhood home of his creator Mark Twain.
Canada. The first Sawyer in Canada was probably James Sawyer, born in New Carlisle, Quebec in 1764. His descendants were to be found there and in New Brunswick and Maine as well.
Early Sawyers came also from across the border. Noadiah Sawyer from Vermont,a Loyalist, settled in Hamilton township, Ontario around 1810. And the Rev. Joseph Sawyer was a Methodist missionary from upstate New York who preached across the border on the Niagara circuit. One of his converts was a young Ojibwe Indian who took the name of Joseph Sawyer on his baptism. He and his son David Sawyer were to become chiefs of the Ojibwe Indians and to lead them to their new reservation in Tuscarora township.
Africa. The Sawyers have been a prominent Americo-Liberian family in Liberia. Amos Sawyer from this family served as an interim President in the early 1990's. Violence in the country has meant that many of these Sawyers now live in the US.
Select Sawyer Miscellany
If you would like to read more, click on the miscellany page for
further stories and accounts:
Select Sawyer Names
Sir Edmund Sawyer was auditor to the Exchequer Court in London in the early 1600's.
Willard Sawyer was the bicycle pioneer from Kent with his development of "velocipedes" in the 1840's.
Tom Sawyer was the lead character in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which first appeared in 1876.
Philetus Sawyer was the Senator for Wisconsin from 1881 to 1893.
Diane Sawyer from Louisville, Kentucky is a well-known TV newscaster.
Select Sawyers Today
- 19,000 in the UK (most numerous in Kent)
- 16,000 in America (most numerous in North Carolina)
- 4,000 elsewhere (most numerous in Australia)
Select Index of Names
The Origin/Spread of Surnames
For other surnames check the companion selectsurname.com site where there are to be found the history and genealogy for more than 500 surnames.