ver the last few years
I have written to many with the surname Scarr or Scarre and feel that I have
made many friends during that time. I have discovered that I am related to only
a few but still have the feeling that I am one of a great family. I sometimes
asked you to give me information about yourself and family but did not tell you
about myself, so here goes. My father was born in Cambridgeshire in a county
where most of my forbears lived. Going back a long way I found that there was
an Ulrich Schar in Germany in 1331 where today we still find the name 'Skarr'.
Immigrants from the Low Countries in the sixteenth century who came to London
include those with the name Skarre. Surprisingly, only a few Scarrs have been
in London since. This name is found in the parish records of Dullingham,
Cambridgeshire in 1559 but I have not so far been able to find any reference to
the name earlier in the county. It is derived from the Old German word 'cut'
which probably came originally from the Latin 'scara'. Early in the seventeenth
century the Cambridgeshire spelling became 'Scare' and was used almost entirely
until the mid-nineteenth century when the present spelling was adopted. I was
actually born in Kettering to where my grandfather, a railway fireman, had
moved with his family. After the war I was a music teacher and became Director
of Music for many years in a college in Binfield. Today I just play the organ
for a weekly service and for quite a number of weddings in the summer.
hen I was fifteen I began to make a family tree from the
information my mother and my father's sister gave me. That lay dormant for
almost a lifetime until my son Martin became interested in finding his mother's
lineage in the north. Thus my interest in family history was whetted with
forays not only into Cambridge but into Yorkshire and Lancashire. This became
so absorbing that after my family tree was almost as complete as it could be I
continued doing a one-name study of Scarr. This was done quite easily in
Cambridgeshire as the Society of Genealogists holds the Bishop's Transcripts of
almost all parish records in the county; and they are printed in books that are
indexed. If only it were as easy elsewhere! Most Cambridgeshire Scarrs trace
their ancestry back to John Skarr and Ann Lofte and their families mostly lived
in the villages to the south east of Cambridge until they moved away or into
the city itself in the twentieth century. John was most likely the grandson of
William, a Carpenter in Trumpington. Early seventeenth century records were
missing in Trumpington but there were no other Scarrs about there then. I also
got all the birth, marriage and death certificates for my family at
St.Catherine's House, London. They are now housed in the Family Records Centre
in Islington together with censuses and various other items of interest to the
genealogist. After a year or two, having traced my family tree just about as
far as I could go, I was so absorbed in family history that I embarked on a
one-name study.
n the S.O.G library
there was a book with a collection of findings of our name in various parts of
the country by Jack Renforth Scarr of Oxford. Later this was in printed form
and I am very happy to have a copy especially as it is now out of print. Since
then Jack has let me copy all his findings, including information on wills.
court cases, land tax, newspapers etc. and quite a number of fascinating
stories. This is when my eyes became open to the many people of our name who
lived in North Yorkshire. Apparently the Vikings came to England a thousand
years ago and brought Scandinavian words with them. One was 'skar' which meant
not only a cut as in German but a gap through a rocky place. There are many
places called 'scar' in the north and especially in the Askrigg area. By the
thirteenth century men used a surname, often taken from the place where they
lived. The earliest reference we have is to a Robert Skar of Rievaulx Abbey in
1178.It is not surprising that we find most of the Scarrs in Askrigg in
Wensleydale by the seventeenth century. There were others earlier in places
like York but most of those who trace their descent form Yorkshire find that it
was from someone in Wensleydale. There are several words in the Scandinavian
languages that have almost the same meaning, 'skar', 'skor'. 'skur' and
'skarth'. These have given us not only the surname 'Scarr' but also 'Scurr',
'Scarth'' and possibly 'Score'. At first I felt obligated to research all of
these as I felt they might easily have become interchanged. After finding only
one instance when 'Scarr' was written instead of 'Scurr' I decided it was time
to concentrate on 'Scarr' and its immediate variant 'Scarre'. The 'k' had more
or less given way to the 'c' by the seventeenth century but 'Scarre' appeared
much later. I was fascinated by the name 'Skeer' found mostly in Kent. Don
Skeer has a family listing going back to John Skyrr who settled in that part of
the wor ld in the sixteenth century. He found the name in West Yorkshire about
that time and earlier.
ary Ann of Newsham had
a son Jackson in 1826 calling him Jackson Scarre. Jackson's family and that of
John, Mary Ann's brother, moved into Darlington where Scarr and Scarre are
found today, making up the largest number anywhere. The second largest group is
in Hull. When William Scarr moved from Askrigg to Beverley sometime before 1803
he little realised that he would be the first of a very large family in the
Hull area including a firm of shipbuilders. In the nineteenth century many left
rural Wensleydale to find employment in the more industrial Durham and to a
lesser extent Lancashire. It would appear that three or four Scarr families who
moved over to Durham account for many with the name there today. It was
surprising to find James then moving away as far as Marlborough in Wiltshire
where many of his family live. A John went to Todmorden on the border of
Lancashire and the family spread to various parts of both Yorkshire and
Lancashire. Several unrelated individuals left Wensleydale to settle in Burnley
as the nineteenth century censuses clearly show. The 1881 census reveals that
there were several school teachers amongst those born there including William
Lord Scarr who was listed as being 'certificated'. He became headmaster of a
school in Marton, Blackpool. Later on, Henry Victor was headmaster of a school
in Wainfleet, Lincolnshire. Then there was Archibald, son of Thomas, the first
settler in Burnley. The family sold fruit and vegetables and when times were
hard they moved to Leeds. Archie became a market trader with with several
stalls and it is said that he eventually had a chain of twenty shops in Leeds.
It is one of the most fascinating stories of a man who eventually became Mayor
of Leeds and had a book published about him. Joseph Shipp of Cambridge went to
Greenwich where his son also was mayor. Some may have moved from Wensleydale
but still remained in Yorkshire. Francis was born in Strensall and his grandson
John Francis of Flaxton had fifteen children in the Selby area. His grandson
was able to give me details of all their births and marriages which made a very
large family. There was a marriage in 1766 in Northamptonshire of someone with
the unusual name of Swain Scarr. He was evidently from the north as the
spelling was not that used in Cambridgeshire. The name 'Swain' appears two and
three generations later and the third Swain called himself 'Henry' in later
life.
skrigg was used for the
filming of James Herriot's 'All Creatures Great and Small' some years ago. It
was probably chosen for being totally unspoiled. The churchyard and modern
cemetery are full of gravestones with the name 'Scarr' on them. Many
generations lived in Coleby Hall which had an estate of 2000 acres on the
Bainbridge side of Askrigg. The Tudor house was bought in 1931 by James Scarr
who achieved this great ambition at the age of 84. The house is still occupied
by members of the family half of it being let for holiday accommodation. As so
many can trace their ancestry back to George and Ann Clarkson who were married
in 1701 I have been trying hard to find who was the father of George. When
looking through the Bishops Transcripts of Askrigg I found an entry for a
christening in 1674 of an unnamed son of John who most probably was George and
one in 1675 of John, his brother. From the hearth tax records of 1673 and the
17th century wills this seems very likely. George was a yeoman holding lands
and his father John was too, and his grandfather Thomas, if I have them right.
Why did his father not make a will? Most men with property seem to have made
their wills just before they died but perhaps John died unexpectedly before
doing so. As this is still uncertain I must just keep it on my files until I
can get more definite information.
uite a few emigrated in
the last century, many to Australia and a few to Canada and the United States
of America. Peter and his wife Hannah Powter of Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire
left England for Australia where they established a large family in Orange,
N.S.W. Catherine of Darlington went alone earlier this century and met her
husband in Western Australia. Some of the family of James Stocker Scarr are in
finance and furniture making in Tasmania. Others from Cambridgeshire went to
Western Australia, Victoria and New Zealand. Geoffrey, of the Selby family is
in South Australia.
n November, when
everyone was wearing poppies, I went to the Family Records Centre and looked up
the men who died in the First World War. Quite by coincidence, Don Morrison,
whose mother was Elizabeth Scarr, found the same information with a few extra
details in the Durham Record Office. There were eight men from various parts of
the country in the army and one in the navy. There were only two who died in
the Second World War, one in the army in 1943 and one in the air force in 1944.
Don has helped me a lot in sorting out all the names in Durham. I have found
that the civil registrations are far from complete. It seems that many events
were not even registered but some that were have not got through to the
indexes. Incidentally, there are more Scarr/es in Durham than in any other
county and Don has been of great help in sorting them out.
wo brothers from Armagh
were married in Downham in the nineteenth century. According to the census they
were born soon after 1840 and Samuel's marriage certificate indicates that they
were the sons of James. Since then I have become interested in finding some
Irish records. The civil registrations for all of Ireland began there in 1864
and Protestant marriages were recorded from 1845. It was unfortunate that the
Record Office in Dublin was burned down in the troubles of 1922. However, the
civil registrations among other things were saved. Of course, the records for
Northern Ireland after 1922 are kept in Belfast. A lady over there helped me to
get everything up to 1922 and then I discovered that the Mormon Family Research
Centre was acquiring all the Irish records. Consequently l went there to find
the later years as far as they had gone with them. From the deaths I found a
John in Armagh who was born about 1786 and James who died in 1871 was most
likely his son. They were evidently a Protestant family who moved to Belfast
about the turn of the century for employment. I also have Robert and Teresa, a
Catholic couple who moved to Durham about 1850 from Ireland. I have just a few
entries for Dublin and the death of Henry, also in 1871, appears to be that of
Robert's father. One day the census may reveal more.
esearching family history has been a very rewarding
hobby in retirement and recording all the information would have been near
impossible without the aid of a computer. At the flick of a key it is possible
to find a piece of information you are wanting such as a person's date of death
or the name of a spouse. It is not always there but that is for another reason.
Then, having all the civil registrations and many parish records is not always
sufficient and this is where the nineteenth century censuses come in useful.
This is especially true of the 1881 census which has been indexed for the whole
country. It only came out last year but has been a tremendous boon. There are
indexed census records for 1851 for many places also but you have to scout
around to find them. The Mormon index of births, baptisms and marriage or
I.G.I. has long been a useful tool. It is updated from time to time but it is
by no means complete; nor is it always accurate. Getting all this information
from their respective offices and putting into the computer was a mammoth task
but now that is completed I can do much work at home with occasional visits to
look up the census.
his is just a little
idea of how things are going and I thought it might be of interest to you.
Thankyou to those who have helped me fill in gaps. Some of you have promised to
send me some of the more precise dates and places or other details of your
family as the civil registration indexes give only the year and quarter and the
registration district. I would still be happy to receive anything further and
to find out anything that I may have missed. I am also gathering together
interesting short biographies or stories of anyone with the name Scarr/e. I
will try to answer as soon as I can although it may take a little while. This
was supposed to be ready for sending out for Christmas but all I can do is to
wish you good health and a happy and peaceful new year.