Sommerwill -a Devon Family: Family Name


The Family Name

In the Devon parish registers that I have consulted for this research, though the family name is spelt in no fewer than 45 different ways, it is quite clear that in Devon, at least, all belong to one family whether the name is Somerwill, Somerville, Summerwell or whatever. The same individuals often have their name spelt differently in each register entry. Most people in times past were too illiterate even to write their names. The parish clergy therefore spelt the names as they sounded and in a variety of ways. The Somerwill form is the earliest (sometimes with an accent on the -m- to show it is doubled). Yet even Summerfields are of the same family, and it is possible to date the change in spelling precisely for some of them, for the Heanton Punchardon parish register contains the following entries:
1770 Marriage of James Sommerwill and Mary Knote
1771 Baptism of John s. of James & Mary Somerfill
1773 Baptism of Charles, son of James and Mary Somerfield.

They were undoubtedly the same James and Mary. Thereafter most of their descendants in Heanton Punchardon and Ashford retained the -field ending. Similarly at Shirwell and Marwood in the 19th century there was a change from Somerville to Summerfield. The spelling became settled only after 1870, when elementary education became compulsory. At one stage of the research I counted the occurrences of different spellings in the registers I had consulted. The total of 916 entries were divided as follows:

 

Somerwill 166 (18%) Sommerwill 166 (18%)
Summerwill 108 (12%) Sommerwille 97 (11%)
Somerville 93 (10%) Sommerwell 64 (7%)
Sumerwill 36 ( 4%) Summerfield 30 (3%)
Somerfield 27 ( 3%) Somerwille 19 (2%)
Somerwell 17 ( 2%) Summerwell 16 (2%)
Sommerville 15 ( 2%) Others 62 (6%)

 

The other variants included:
Sammerville, Sammerwell, Samuell, Slammorwell, Somerfill, Somervell, Somervil, Somervile, Somervill, Somerwel, Somerwil, Somerwile, Somerwyll, Somewill, Somewille, Sommarwill, Sommerfield, Sommerfill, Sommersvill, Sommervil, Sommervill, Sommerwil, Sommorwill, Sumerfield, Summerfill, Summerill, Summervill, Summerville, Summerwil, Summerwille.
Of these 21 were used once only.The most common spellings in each century were, in descending order of popularity:

16th Century
Somerwill
Sommerwell		 17th Century
Sommerwill
Summerwill
Sommerwell
Somerwill		 18th Century
Sommerwille
Sommerwill
Somerville
Somerwill
Summerwill		 19th Century
Somerwill
Somerville
Sommerwill
Summerwill

 

In this research, therefore, variations of spelling have largely been disregarded.