Smallshaw Family History

from Smallshaw in Ashton under Lyne (Lancs) Smallshaw in Thurlstone (WR Yorks) and perhaps also Smallshaw in Wadsworth (WR Yorks); the place-names probably all derive from Old English smæl ‘narrow thin’ + sceaga ‘small wood copse’. Redmonds Dictionary of Yorks Surnames notes that in the Thurlstone area the suffix in the surname shifted to -cher and -schar suggesting that Middle English share ‘a share of land’ was substituted for shaw ‘copse’.

perhaps from Middle English smal ‘small narrow’ + sho ‘shoe’. perhaps from a lost place Smelesho of uncertain etymology recorded in 1297 in King's Bench Pleas (Beds) and again in 1420 in London Letter Books I.