The Ancient History of the surname Worters

The Ancient History of the
surname Worters

The history of the most ancient Anglo/Saxon surname Worters reaches far into the chronicles of the Saxon race. The Saxon Chronicle, complied by monks in the 10th century, now reposed in the British Museum. History researchers have examined reproductions of such ancient manuscripts as the Doomsday Book (1086), the Ragman Rolls (1292 - 1296), and the Curia Regis Rolls, the Pipe Rolls, the Hearth Rolls, parish registers, baptismal, tax records and other ancient documents.
They found the first record of the name Worters in Shropshire where they were seated from very ancient times, in Ludlow, before and after the Norman Conquest in 1066.
Different spelllings were encountered in the research of the Worters surname. Throughout the centuries the name Worters, occurred in many records, manuscripts and documents but not always with your exact spelling. From time to time the surname was spelt Waters, Water and these variations in spelling frequently occcurred, even between father and son.

Two brothers, General/Commanders Heengis and Horsa led them. The Saxons settled in the County of Kent, on the southeast coast of England. Gradually, they spread north and westwasr, and during the next four hundred years forced the Ancient Britons back into Wales and Cornwall in the west and Cumberland to the north. The Angles occupied the eastern coast the south folk in Suffolk, north folk in Norfolk. Under Saxon rule England porspered under a series of High Kings, the last of which was Harold.
In 1066, the Norman invasion from France occurred and their victory at the Battle of Hastings. In 1070, Duke of William took an army on 40.000 north and wasted the northern counties, forcing many rebellious Norman nobles and Saxons to flee over the border into Scotland. Meanwhile, the Saxons who remained in the south were not treated will under hostile Norman rule, and many also mover northward to midlands, Lancashire and Yorkshire away from the Norman oppression.

The new world offered better opportunities and some migrated voluntarily, some were banished mostly for religious reasons. Some left Ireland dissillusioned with promised unfulfilled, but many left directly from England, they're home terrtories. Some also moved to European Continents. Members of the family name Worters sailed aboard the huge armada of three masted sailing ships known as the "White Sail", which plied the stormy Atlantic. These overcrowded ships such as the Hector, the Dove adn the Rambler were pestilence ridden, sometimes 30 to 40% of the passengers list never reaching their destination.

    Nevertheless, this notable English family name, Worters, emered as an influential name in the county of Shropshire. By the 12th century they had branched to Lenham in Kent, and to other estates in Shropshire. They also branched to Sarnau in Carmarthern, Wales, and John Waters was King Richard III's Herald. In the 15th century they branched to Hertfordshire and it was of this branch the Edward Waters settled in Elizabeth City in Virginia in 1610, ten years before the "Mayflower". Notable amoungst the famly at this time was John Waters FitzGeorge of Newcastle, whose grandson became Count Waters, Baron and Seigneur of Mainsfort in the province of Bery in France.
     The surname of Worters flouished during the turbulent middle ages, contributing great to the cultural development of England, during the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th centuries England was ravaged by plagues, famine and religious conflict. Potestantitism the newly found political fervour of Cormwellianism and democratic government, and the remnants of the Roman Church rejected all non believers, each jealously claiming adherents to their own cause. The changing rule caused burnings, hangings and banishments of all sects and creeds; first one then another, many families were freely "encouraged" to migrate to Ireland, or to the "colonies". Some were rewarded with grants of lands others were banished.
     Some families were forced to migrate to Ireland where they became known as the Adventurers of land in Ireland, Protestants settlers "undertook" to keep their faith, being granted lands previously owned by the Catholic Irish. In Ireland they settled in north and east Ulster and in county Cork, and also NewCastle in counry Limwick.

Scribes and Church officials, often travelling great distances, even from other countries, frequently spelt the names phonetically. As a result the same person would be recored diffferently on birth, baptismal, marriage and death certificates as well as the other numerous records recording life's events.
The Saxon race gave birth to many English surnames not the least of which was the surname of Worters. The Saxons were invited into England by the ancient Britons of the 4th Century. A fair skinned people their home was the Rhine Valley, some as far northeast as Denmark.