My birth name was Julie Schofield and I inherited an interest in the family name from my father and my uncle, his brother. I acquired some family  information about the Schofields from them and then began to add my own. My own branch of the Schofield tree has been traced to around 1750 and hailed from Haslingden and Edenfield. Our branch has been "daughtered out" and so, after my cousin, all closest relatives will be 3rd cousin plus. The surname, in England, was most prevalent in the 19th and early 20th centuries in Lancashire and Yorkshire.

Scholefield, Scholfield, Scofield

The earliest mention of the surname that I have found is in 1212 for Henry de Scholefield who held one oxgang of land in Crompton (between Oldham and Rochdale in Lancashire) for which he paid 10d. The barons under whom he held the land were Roger de Montbegon and William de Nevill and they held a larger area of land under King Henry III. This information comes from a document relating to the monks of Cockerham Abbey in Lancashire who were given some land by the aforementioned barons.  The reference is from the Victoria County History for Lancashire. The de Scholefield name seems to have originated in Rochdale parish then ramified into East Lancashire and West Yorkshire, especially into Saddleworth and Huddersfield. The existence of a surname including the 'de' at such an early stage suggests (according to the textbooks) that Henry's ancestor/s arrived with William the Conqueror in 1066 from Normandy. My cousin, who has taken a YDNA test on Familytreedna, was automatically placed, on that website, in the Project, 'Barons and Nobles of England'.

Some facts and figures

Census numbers: UK 1881 17, 153; USA 1880 7, 565; USA 1940 12, 642. Using The Genealogist the census numbers for England are: 1841 8,674; 1851 9, 556; 1861 11, 620; 1871 13, 738; 1881 16, 193; 1891 16, 319; 1901 18.996; 1911 20, 138; 1939 Register 16, 093. The 1921 census on FindMyPast gives the figures as 19,894. Does the slight decrease in numbers indicate a dwindling of the name? The much smaller figure for the 1939 Register does not include all the redacted entries.

According to the website Forbears.io current Schofield numbers are: 20, 305 in England; 17, 566 in the USA; 5, 177 in Australia and 3, 401 in Canada.

There is DNA Schofield Project which has been established on FamilytreeDNA under the auspices of the Guild. Two existing groups, which included variants of the name and which seem to have been abandoned, are being incorporated into one group which potentially could have about 56 members.