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SHEPPARD Family History
This name is an ancient English and sometimes Scottish surname. Recorded in many forms as shown below, it was an important and early occupational surname for a sheep farmer or someone employed to tend and watch over sheep. The derivation is from the Olde English pre 7th century word "sceap", with a fused form of either "hierde", meaning a herdsman, or "weard", a guardian or watchman. Occasionally the modern surname may derive from an occupational name for a "shipward". This certainly applies in the following recordings of Thomas Shypward in 1432, and John Shipward in 1467, both being from the port of Bristol...Who have we missed?
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