Guild of One-Name Studies
One-name studies, Genealogy
Study: Sawyer
Variants: Sagyere, Sawer, Sawiere, Sawyers, Sayhare
Category: 1 - A study where research using core genealogical datasets and transcriptions is in its early stages.
Website: www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:Sawyer_Name_Study
Contact: Mr Jeffrey Michaelsen
This is a place holder for this One-Name Study profile page.
Sawyers, Sawer.
Historically, Sagyere.
German equivalent, Sager.
Sawyer is an occupational name. Imagine 2 men with a very long saw, pushing and pulling. One stood on top of a log and the other underneath sawing the log into boards. Today "sawyer" may refer to a person working in a sawmill, or operating a chain saw cutting trees.
Wikipedia Sawyer_(Occupation)
oxforddictionaries.com
According to several web sites the first recorded use of the surname is Nicholas le Sagyere in about 1248.
I was able to find him on page 80 in The Hidden Index of Hungerford Names posted at the Hungerford Virtual Museum. There is also a Peter le Sagyere listed just below him, but I have not been able to figure out the reference (Monfort - Bec). If anyone happens to know what that is, please educate me.
I also found Nicholas in Select Documents of the English Lands of the Abbey of Bec, by Marjorie Chinball, Camden, Third Series, Volume 73, 1951. He is found on page 68 listed in Hungerford Custumals. "Nicholaus le Sagyere tenet unum mesuagium pro 2s." I think this means "held one dwelling for 2 schillings." I assume 2 schillings annually?
Census data from Ancestry.com and U.S. National Archives.
Please visit the Sawyer Project at FamilyTreeDNA.
https://www.familytreedna.com/public/Sawyer/