jan 1, 1543 - underwood

Description:

Defined in the OED as: ‘small trees or shrubs, coppice wood or brush-wood growing beneath higher timber trees’. 1373-4 <i>boscum lentiscorum corulorum & aliarum minutarum arborum vocatarum vndrewodd</i>, Leeds (Th45/110). A post-Dissolution survey of the woods formerly held by Selby Abbey contrasts underwood with timber and provides details of the different species and their cycles of growth: 1543 <i>the underwod wherof standyth moch by hassell and sallowe of sondry ages, wherein are many faire oke spyres of thage of xiiij yeres or thereabowt, And no tymbre within the same wodde</i>, Southwood; <i>the underwoode … of the age of xvj or xviij yeres is solde … to be felled within thre yeres next</i>, Aughton. Other entries name alder, birch and holly, much of which at that time was <i>made in faggottes for the repaire of the stathes and bankes of the water of Owse</i> (YRS13/360-3). I have found no suggestion that the by-name Underwood may be occupational and yet it is noticeable how often it occurs on wood-managed estates, e.g. 1258 <i>Alice sub bosco</i>, Rothwell (YRS12/60); 1341 <i>Henry Underwodde</i>, Roundhay Park (Th2/225); 1379 <i>Ricardus Undyrwode</i>, Hambleton (PTWR). Some references are more explicit: 1418-9 <i>In cariagio earumdem arborum a bosco de Hamelton usque Usam apud Selby per Johannem Underwod</i> (SS35/38). I suspect that it was more often occupational than geographic and if that is so it would have implications for the surname.

Added to timeline:

Date: