Family History Pages from David Murray - FISHWICK first page  

Pages first posted
Dec.1999
Latest changes:

17 Apr. 2001

Email to:
djm.genealogy @btinternet.com

David Murray's Family History Pages
including (eventually, hopefully !!!)
Murray - Boyers - Booth - Fishwick - Atkinson - Taylor - Walker - Spicer
Blenkharn - Barnes - Fox - Rowlandson - Huggonson - Lamb - Moulton - Runchman
Godmond - Russell - Ambler - Bairstow - Hinchcliffe - Robertshaw - Dawson

My own Fishwick TREE project
&
A global Fishwick SURNAME study

 

Click here
for


FRONT PAGE (Overall)

Famous Fishwicks

Henry Fishwick of Rochdale (1835-1914) Now with a new obituary, photographs and coat of arms added

 


An Outline of these pages

The Fishwick section of these pages will consist of two interrelated components.

Firstly, my own Fishwick ancestry in "Lunesdale"

This is the result of many years of work; according to my oldest notebook I started the search in September 1973 - although there have been periods during which a busy professional life prevented my making much progress. My grandfather, Frederick Fishwick, farmed from the early years of the 20th century until 1947 at Field Broughton near Cartmel, but was born in Staveley, between Kendal and Windermere. His father, James, was born in 1842 in Longsleddale - at High Swinklebank - the son of Thomas Fishwick, born 1808 in Sedbergh.

The previous three generations of this line of Fishwicks often had their surname spelled as Fiswick, or Fizwick, or Physwick, or Physick, or ..... . The spelling varies considerably depnding on the clerk who was writing it down. They were part of a large extended family which spread througout the area between Kirkby Lonsdale and Sedbergh, combining small-scale farming with small-scale coal mining. Some appear to have been tenant farmers, others farm labourers working for others. Thomas's father, Richard (born 1873 in Casterton) lived in Barbon for some years before migrating along with others of the family to the Frostrow area up in the hills above Sedbergh. Richard was one of a large family, several of whose brothers and uncles moved out to West Yorkshire and County Durham and became the ancestors of other present-day Fishwick researchers in many parts of the world.

Richard's father Thomas (born Casterton, 1754) was in turn the son of Seth who was the first of his line to move into the Kirkby Lonsdale area. He was born in 1723 at Longridge, Lancashire, and christened at the parish church of Ribchester, down by the banks of the River Ribble; his father was another Thomas, who came from Preston.

At present (May 2001) I am confident of this tree back to that point in the early years of the 18th century, and feel that I'm on the verge now of breaking into the late-1600s. I've had large volumes of data from the 1500s and 1600s for many years. The difficulty has been piecing it together to establish relationships based on more than mere guesswork. That continues to be the challenge, but a systematic and comprehensive transcription of all Fishwick and Physick entries in all extant parish registers from Lancashire north of the Ribble (Amounderness), South Westmorland and those parts of Yorkshire in Lunesdale is now well under way and I believe will bear fruit.

The bare bones of progress so far is shown in a provisional version of the tree, accessible by clicking here. This is an interactive tree, showing details of different individuals as you move your mouse pointer around the page. Start by clicking on the Tree symbol, then on my late-mother's name, Alice Fishwick and explore the Fishwick and related ancestry from there. (This tree, which uses Java to power its interaction, was produced using the Dynamic Family Tree software - for further details call up the "About" screen whilst viewing the tree). Please let me know what you think of this type of tree. It's not perfect, but if it basically works for people I'll upload some more Fishwick trees. Incidentally, to close the dynamic tree click on the "X" at the top right of the window. It is also possible to add notes to the basic BMD data, but as this site is intended eventually to be useful to other Fishwick researchers I'll wait to see what response this receives.

Secondly, a global study of the Fishwick surname

The other major component of the site will be data on the surname Fishwick in general. Where did the name come from? What interesting people down the centuries have borne it? To where in the world has it spread? What were the patterns and causes of these migrations? I already have a considerable amount of data on these themes, but will be looking for more, and will value input from others interested in the surname.

Already several people from around the world have contributed to the data, and I'm grateful to each. Now I would especially like to learn more about Fishwick emigrants to Australia, Canada and the United States. When did they go? How did they travel? What circumstances motivated them to leave England? Where did they set up their new homes, and how have their descendants fared in their new environments?

The most probable origin for the name is geographical - the Manor of Fishwick, in Preston, Lancashire, in the Northwest of England. The area is clearly visible as a small stretch of open land to the west of the M6 motorway where it crosses the River Ribble near Preston, the name surviving today as, for example, the Fishwick electoral district of Preston, several Fishwick street names, and Fishwick Hall golf club.

An Adam de Fishwic is known to have lived there during the reign of Henry II (1154-89). Today, by far the greatest concentration of people bearing the surname is within twenty miles of Preston. However, there are clusters elsewhere in England. Did the families on the East coast and in Devon (in the Southwest) also originate from the Preston area centuries ago, or have there been other points of origin and therefore of meaning? Then again, how are the Cumbrian and West Yorkshire branches related to the main body of Fishwicks in Central Lancashire? (I think I now know the answer to that one, going back to the early 1700s; more later!) There were clusters of Fishwicks in the Whitby area of Yorkshire back into the 1500s; where did they come from? These are intriguing questions.

Then how does the surname Fishwick relate to the surname, Physick? As mentioned above, one of my own (illiterate) ancestors was at various points in his life recorded by clerks as Physick, Physwick, Fizwick, Fissick and Fishwick; his gt-gt-grandfather was consistently Fiswick, whilst his children were usually, and his grandchildren always, known as Fishwick. Are Fishwick and Physick just scribal variants of the same name? Or are there Physicks whose name has a completely separate origin and different meaning?

I hope to cover all of these themes on the site as time progresses. For the present I will start by simply showing an analysis of the geographical distribution of the surname in the British 1881 Census.

An enthusiastic user of The Master Genealogist (TMG) software