Easy Start and Dusty

Easy Start and Dusty Finish

Norma of blueyonder.co.uk has set me a nice easy task to start this week with.  Here name of interest is COWLEYSHAW and the question is “Where did it come from and what does it mean?”  In this case they are both the same thing.  This surname is a locational name and comes from the village of Cowlishaw  in Lancashire.     The word -SHAW is from the Old English scaga for a copse.    The  first element  COWLI- is thought possibly to come from a similar root as the first element in COLLEYHURST. Colleyhurst is a village in Lancashire.   COLLEY as a first element is generally thought to be  from coal dust, black, or swarthy   HURST by the way is a hill  that may be wooded.  It therefore looks as though parts of Lancashire are covered in coal dust.  The explanation is of the names are of a copse or a hill that might be wooded that is covered in coal dust .      Examples of this word are top be found as colley-sheep which are those with a black face and legs.  A colley in Somerset is a dialect name for a blackbird.                    
Another name I am working on at the moment is that of HAYES.  The surprising thing is that if you type Patrick HAYES into the 1881 census national index almost without exception every one born before 1860 and given this name comes from Ireland. The name comes from the Old English haes and the word hease which is found as places in Sussex as Heaseland and Heasewood.  This originated as the Old French heis and brushwood.
Norm ASHTON is trying to figure out why his ancestor Alfred JACKSON, who was born in Belper in Derbyshire, would have moved to Boston by the time of his marriage to Harriet Hand SMITH and the birth of  their first child in 1855.  Alfred was a blacksmith and nail-maker by trade.  He must have itchy feet for by 1881 they are living in Toronto.  Alfred had a son named Samuel and he kept a small diary in which he kept his important dates.  Any of these of interest to you?  Sarah Ann SMITH/RASON - 14 Feb; Ethel SHEPHERD - 20 Feb;  Ada SHEPHERD - 14 Mar;  S. RASON Jr - 24 Mar; Alfred SHEPHERD - 2 Apr;  Cousin Gertie (G.E.) JACKSON/HOLBEACH - 12 May;  M.E. JACKSON, cousin Mary Edith HOLBEACH - 1 Jun;  A. M. JACKSON, cousin Maud - 2 Jul;  Arthur SHEPHERD - 23 Jul;  G.L. RASON - 8 Aug;  W. H. SHEPHERD - 14 Aug;  C. SHEPHERD - 15 Aug;  G.H. RASON - 22 Sep;  E. M. RASON - 27 Sep;  F. B. RASON - 17 Oct;  G.E. SHEPHERD, Grantham - 7 Dec;  Aunt E. JACKSON - 22 Dec.  Do you have something similar in your family?
Bits and Bobs
For sale on eBay with one day to go and already up to £275.  Mons Star Trio with Bar & Rosette on Star all named to 9358 Pte Thomas Harry Johnson 1st Lincs BUT plaque named Henry Johnson!!.  I hope that it is a family member bidding. At the same time the following were for sale - Trios to Pte 9547 S T Hayward, Pte 16790 R J Dodds & Pte 3065 G W Watkinson.  The numbers are very handy if you are going after the individual’s military papers.