SHORTGRAVE/SHORTGROVE/SHALLGRAVE etc

Origins: Unknown but it would seem likely the surname is related to a place name (Shortgrove or small wood of which there are several instances)

As far as I can establish this name is extinct in the UK. I have identified only one family using the name in the past. According to The 1618-19 Heralds Visitation of Northamptonshire Henry Shortgrave of Worcestershire married Ann, daughter of Sir ? Payton of Isleham, Cambridgeshire. Henry's son, Robert moved to Everdon in Northamptonshire. Robert died in 1620 aged "over 80". The family were well todo and had their own Arms described as :”Ermine a fess chequy Argent and Gules between three lions' heads erased of the last.”

I have found no mention of the Shortgraves in the Worcestershire Visitations I have access to and nothing in wills in that county. There is refernce to the family in Stoke Prior (Worcs) in 1225 where Reginald was a farmer, in Bromyard in 1285, in Stoke Prior again in 1327, and in London in 1380 where Thomas was a priest. There are three 1537 wills in Bishops Frome in Herefordshire for John, Richard and Roger Shortgrave (why 3 in one year?) and Bishops Frome is only just over the county border from Worcestershire, so it looks as if the family lived for 400 years on the Worcestershire and Herefordshire borders. .

I am descended from Anne Shortgrave (christened1625 Everdon) but the surname was in Northamptonshire until at least 1780, some of the family becoming clergy, another a watch maker, another an ironmonger.

If anyone has any information on Shortgraves past or present (or can read 1537 wills!) I would be pleased to hear from them.

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