Attwood

Attwood a family  name may have developed form the medieval way of describing someone by where they lived in the sense of someone who lived ‘at the wood’.   A member of the family was buried in Chewton Mendip in the 1950s.

Jessie Atwood is shown in a map of Widcombe dated 1611.  A Widow Attwood was in receipt of poor relief in 1670 but there is no record of which tithing she lived in. A John Attwood was giving evidence in 1675 against Alice Savidge of for selling strong spirits which implies he was a regular visitor, if not resident in the village centre. He may have been the John Attwood who was paying poor rates in 1704 and he was recorded as paying rates in the Town, East End and Middlesex tithings. He died about 1713 because a Widow Attwood was paying rates to the churchwardens  for the same properties in 1714.

One member of the family was not faring so well. Jane Attwood was the mother of a ‘base born’ or illegitimate child, Hester, in 1727. She was  probably the Jane Atwood in receipt of poor relief from Chewton Mendip in the mid 18 century (file 2020a). She had at least two children cared for by the parish after her death. A number of other members of the Attwood family were in receipt of poor relief.

A Widow Attwood and Benjamin, who was probably her son were also recorded as rate payers in the poor book starting in 1730. reference to members of the family occur in the history of Chewton Mendip untl the modern era.