When Clement Coldam testified against his neighbors John Pearce and Jane Stanwood, he stated that "John Pearce was accustomed to take the widow STANNARD to his house at night and she was seen to go away in the morning."
Christine Leigh Heyrman in Commerce and Culture: The Maritime Communities of Colonial Massachusetts (1690-1750)consistently uses the spelling STANNARD when referring to the Stanwood family, but in Babson's Gloucester Notes, Second Series, he consistently uses the spelling STANWOOD, as in the following quotation: "1666, 4th mo.--Philip Stanwood is allowed as eldest sergeant of the foot company at Gloucester."
In British English, unlike American English, place names like Harwich, Norwich, and Warwick, for example, are pronounced as if spelt Harrich, Norrich, or Warrick, dropping the W in the second syllable.
As I was searching for brothers Solomon and Isaac Norwood in the records of Lower St. Georges and Cushing, Maine (1605-1897), compiled by Ruth J. Aiken, I found two entries for Isaac Norwood, and rather by accident, an additional entry for Isaac NORROD, who was elected to be one of the church wardens in 1792. After a moment's thought, I realized that this must be the same person. Since clerks throughout the history of the U.S. have tended to spell names as they hear them, especially when the owner of the name cannot write, it is entirely possible that the spelling NORROD represents the pronunciation the clerk heard or even used at that time, a pronunciation that probably rhymed with forehead (for English speakers who do not pronounce the H in the second syllable and stress the first syllable).
This evidence, sparse as it is, suggests, therefore, that our forebears, as late as the turn of the nineteenth century, may have pronounced the surname Norwood without the W in the second syllable.
As evidence comes in on this, I will be adding pages to this discussion. Please follow the links to other evidence below.
Go to other evidence from England.
Go to Descendants of Edward Eidson for evidence from South Carolina records.
Return to The Norwood Family Page