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Recorded as Beswick, Bestwick, Beswick and the expanded form of Bestwetherick, this is an English surname. It is and from either of the two places called Beswick, one in Lancashire and the other in Yorkshire, and possibly a lost medieval place called Beswetheridge or similar, although this is not proven. Beswick in Yorkshire is first recorded as 'Baswic' in the Book of 1086, although the Lancashire village as 'Beswiche' is not found until the of 1202, in the reign of King John (1199-1216). It is believed that the first element of the name derives from an pre 7th Century, "Beac" but it is just as likely to be from "boe" meaning a bee. The second element comes from the Olde English "wic" meaning an outlying farm, and therefore bee farm is quite logical as honey was the only source of sugar then available. The surname was given either to the family of the Lords of the , as seems to be the case with the Bestwycks of Lancashire, or more normally was given as identification after a person moved to another place.

List Ancestral records for:- Bestwerthick

The Bestwyckes of Pike House, Lancaster were in circa 1600 granted heraldic arms of a red field charged with three bezants and a fess in chief, all gold, whilst the Bestwicks of Yorkshire had a similar design but of ten bezants, with a gold chief, and thereon a blue lion passant. Examples of the surname recordings include William Bestwicke, who married Isabell Dosone at Prestbury, Cheshire, in 1589, and Roberte Bestwycke, who married Katherine Parkyns by civil licence in London in 1592. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas Bexwik of Manchester, which was dated 1332 in the "" by J.P. Rylands, during the reign of King Edward 111, known as the , 1327 - 1377. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as . Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing of the original spelling.
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