The Dashwood One-Name Study was registered with the Guild in 1988 and grew out of an interest in my mother’s middle name which was her father’s first name and his mother’s surname.

The aim is to collect data on everyone recorded with this surname and assemble them into pedigrees on AQ (Ancestral Quest) as far as possible. I have concentrated on the English lines but have much information from other countries as well. All my data has now been added to familysearch.org with sources in the Notes so they are widely available.

Dashwood is a very straightforward name to pronounce and spell hence there are no modern variants. In older records one sometimes finds Daishwood, Dasher, Dashewod(e), Dashewood(e), Dashwod(e), Dashwoode, Dashwoods, Dassh(e)wood, Daysh(e)wode and Daysshewod. The surname Ashwood in its various early forms e.g. A(y)s(s)h(e)wode has probably been confused with early Dashwoods.

Amongst deviants in original records or transcriptions I have seen Bashwood, Darkwood, Dasher, Dashood, Dashper, Dashunt, Dashwer, Dashwoo, Dashworth, Daskwood, Dasshoud, Daswood, Datchford, Dewchand, Dishwood, Duskwood, Lashwood, Taishood, Taishwood and Underwood some of which are surnames in their own right.

The only standard references to consider Dashwood are:

Harrison (1912 & 1918) who gives Dweller at the badger wood from Middle English words Dash for badger and Wode for wood.

Reaney (1970) intimates it is a contraction of De Ashwood, someone living in or near ash trees.

Hanks and Hodges (1988) gives English: topographic name for someone living in an ashwood , or habitation name from someone who came from a place called ASHWOOD. The Anglo-Norman French preposition de of, from, has become fused to the name. Essentially the same information is given in Hanks, Coates & McClure (2016).

There are plenty of instances of the name in 15^th and 16^th centuries in Dorset. The first known outside this county are 1575 in West Pennard, Somerset, 1581 in Monksilver, Somerset and 1596 in Eling, Hants.

The Dashwood family that moved to Stogumber, Somerset has given rise to three Aldermen (Francis, William and George) and a Lord Mayor (Samuel) of London, an MP (James), a Vice-Admiral (Charles) and two baronetcies (Kirtlington Park, Oxon and West Wycombe, Bucks).

The 1^st baronet of Kirtlington Park was Sir Robert Dashwood, so created 16 September 1684 by Charles II as a baronet of England. The Oxfordshire family is huge and has contributed large numbers of men to the senior ranks of the British Army.

The first baronet of West Wycombe was Sir Francis Dashwood so created 28 June 1707 by Queen Anne as the premier (first) baronet of Great Britain, after the Act of Union with Scotland earlier that year. The Buckinghamshire family is relatively small but well-known in England chiefly through the exploits of Sir Francis Dashwood, 2^nd baronet of West Wycombe who was a bit of a character. His exploits as instigator of the Hell Fire Club should be viewed together with his distinguished parliamentary career including stints as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Postmaster General. These and many other facets of his life, such as his friendship with Benjamin Franklin and his revision of the Book of Common Prayer, were detailed by the 11^th baronet, another Sir Francis in his 1987 book The Dashwoods of West Wycombe.

In 1881 there were 381 Dashwoods in the census of Great Britain.

From 1837 until 1996 there were 1401 Dashwood births registered in England & Wales.

The 1881 Census shows a preponderance of the family in Hants, Mddx, Surrey and Norfolk and still a contingent in Dorset and Somerset. The low number in Oxon and absence in Bucks can be accounted for by the titled families also having London residences.

The most Dashwood births in England & Wales from 1837-1996 were in the Registration Districts of Norwich (114) and IOW (101) both of which covered the full spectrum of years, and correspond to known large Dashwood families. The next were Poole (89), Camberwell (42) and West Ham (31) followed by 11 districts with 20-30 births, 16 with 10-20 births and an astonishing 193 districts with 1-9 entries. All districts containing 12 or more births were located in South & East England.

The Dashwood Archives contains all English & Welsh civil registration BMD 1837-1996 and census 1841-1911 together with a large collection of parish register and miscellaneous entries from England. Probate 1858-1997 is detailed as well as most PCC 1383-1858, Death Duty Registers 1796-1903, and county collections. Scottish, Irish and British Overseas civil registration indexes are covered. FindMyPast, Deceased On Line, SoG, FamilySearch and Ancestry collections are monitored. Marriages have been submitted to the GOONS Marriage Index.

The Dashwood One-Name Study is ready to be handed on to another researcher now.

Contact details

dashwood@one-name.org