This surname is derived from an occupation. 'the shoesmith,' a maker of horseshoes, a farrier. Sixsmith may be a corruption of sickle-smith (v. Sucksmith); but it is probable, however strange it may appear, that all the above names are changes rung upon Shoesmith. Having once reached Sucksmith, the final step to Sixsmith was easy.

William le Shosmyth, Close Rolls, 16 Edward I.

Henry Shughsmythe, Yorkshire Testamenta Eboracensia (Surtees Society).

Margerie Shughsmythe. Lancashire Wills and Inventories (Chetham Society).

Bryan Sukesmythe, temp. Elizabeth 7. Calendar of Proceedings in Chancery, temp. Elizabeth I.

1577. Baptised — Mary, d. John Shewsmith: St. Thomas the Apostle, London.

1576. Bryan Shusmith, of Winwick: Wills at Chester.

1602. Thomas Sixsmith, of Atherton: ibid.

1608. John Sixsmith, of Wigan: ibid.

1617. Thomas Sixesmith, or Sicksmith, Lancashire: Register of the University of Oxford.

(English) Farrier [Old English scó(h, shoe + smiþ, smith]

A maker of horse-shoes, a farrier. Let me remark here, the impropriety of the common acceptation of the word farrier, which in country places is applied to a person who practices medicine for the equine race, and for domestic quadrupeds in general. In the last generation, most villages had a ' horse-farrier and cow-leech,' (See under Leech) with an oval sign-board over his door to that effect; at present such a practitioner has a brass plate with ' veterinary-surgeon ' inscribed thereon. But originally, and correctly, the farrier was a man who provided horses with shoes (fers a cheval) i.e., a shoe-smith. In rural districts, the farrier or shoe-smith, forgetting the maxim, NE SUTOR ULTRA CREPIDAM, exceeded his function, and took care of the health of horses, and at length handed over the feet of his charge to the village blacksmith, to whom they primally and of right belonged, though meanwhile he continued to be called a farrier-the original meaning of the word being totally lost sight of.