This surname is derived from an occupation. 'a sowherd'; compare Calvert, Coward, Stoddard, &c. But v. Seward (a).

Alicia Sueherd, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

(2) Bapt 'the son of Siward' (Yonge).

Syward Godwin. Placitorum in domo capitulari Westmonasteriensi.

Siward Oldcorn. Calendarium Genealogicum.

Siward, Earl of the Northumbrians, Freeman, Norman Conq.

Siward, Abbot of Abingdon, ibid.

Siward de Liment, Pipe Roll, 5 Henry II.

Syward (without surname), Oxfordshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Sywardus (without surname), Oxfordshire, ibid.

Thomas Sywat, Suffolk, ibid.

Richard Syward, Buckinghamshire, ibid.

Hugo Syward, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Johanna Syward, 1379: ibid.

1728. Baptised — Ann, d. John Suertt: St. James, Clerkenwell.

From the Old English personal name Sigeweard, 'victorious guard.' Siward is famous in Scottish history as the victor over Macbeth at the battle of Dunsinnan, 1054. Siward Barn, a Saxon noble, in 1070, with several others, took refuge for a few months in Scotland. Chalmers thinkj he was no doubt progenitor of a numerous family in Scotland but gives no reasons for his belief. An Edward, son of Siward, witnessed the confirmation charter by David I to the monks of Dunfermline, c. 1128 (RD., p. 3). His name "appears low down in the list of witnesses, and was probably not a man of high rank" (Lawrie, p. 285). About 1219 Richard Syward witnessed a confirmation charter by John, earl of Huntingdoun, in favor of the Abbey of Arnbroath (RAA., I, 84). His grandson, also named Richard, was one of the magnates Scotiæ who engaged to recognize Princess Margaret on the death of Alexander III (Fœdera). David Syward, cleric, was witness to a document anent the land of Neuton juxta Arne, c. 1280 (RMP., p. 72). The family took the English side in the War of Independence and were in consequence involved in ruin on the success of the national cause. The Scottish line of Siwards ended in a daughter, Helena, who was married to Isaac Maxwell. She held lands in Fife in the reigns of Robert I and David II (RMS., I, App. II, 701, 1372). Suard 1297.

(Teutonic) 1 Victorious Guard or Protector [Old Teutonic Sigew(e)ard, Sig(i)- ward, Sigurð-r, &c.: Old English sige = Old Saxon O.H.Ger. sigi = Old Norse sig-r = Goth, sigi-s, victory + Old English w(e)ard = Old Saxon ward = O.H.Ger. wart = Old Norse vörð-r = Gothic wardia, ward, guard, etc,] Eadulf, Earl of Northumbria, a relation of Harthacnut, had been received by him with feigned friendship, and was at his command murdered by Siward (Sigeweard), on whom that powerful earldom was afterwards bestowed.—Lapp.-Thorpe, Anglo-Saxon Kings, ii. 279.

2 conf. with Seaward, q.v.

This name appears in Brompton’s “Liste des Conquérants d’Angleterre”as Sewrard. In the Roll of Carlaverock it is Suwart: - “Richard Suwart, ke o eus converse, Noire bannière ot aprestée O crois blance o bouz flouretée.”

This Siward was a Scottish knight, married to a sister of Simon Fresel, who, having more than once shifted his allegiance, was at that time serving in the English army. Edward II. appointed him Constable of Dumfries in 1309, and he is supposed to have died in the following year.

It cannot be this Scotsman who is here designated, but one of two Siwards who were of considerable note at the Conquest, the one in Shropshire, the other in Cheshire.

Siward, surnamed Grossus, is more than once mentioned in Domesday, and was “a great assistant to Earl Roger in the foundation of Salop Abbey.” According to Ordericus, he was a kinsman of the Earl’s, and probably of Danish blood: “the name Siward is Danish rather than Saxon, and Earl Roger’s greatgrandmother was a Dane.” He was consequently suffered to retain the manors in Shropshire that he had held under the Confessor, and bequeathed them to his son Aldred. The succession cannot be traced further. (See Eyton's Salop.) The other Siward was one of the “Barones et Homines”enumerated by Hugh Lupus in his charter to Chester Abbey, and the ancestor of the Lancelyns, seated at Poulton-Lancelyn in that county till the reign of Henry VIII.

A Seward was among the twelve knights who, under William Rufus, went with Robert Fitz-Hamon to the conquest of Glamorgan, and formed the “Douze Peres” between whom he divided his newly-won territory. The Devonshire family of Seward of Stokeinteignhead probably derived from him: and Banks believes him to have been also the progenitor of the Sywards of Winterborn-Clinston, in Dorsetshire. Of this latter house was “Richard Syward, who, 26 Ed. I., was one of those who then had summons to attend a great council at Carlisle, furnished with horse and arms; on which occasion he is denominated a baron. But, excepting at this period, and in the following year to the same place, the name of Syward is not noticed as of baronial consideration.

“Matthew Paris mentions a Richard Sward, who, in the reign of Henry III., was a very martial person, and during that troublesome era made a conspicuous figure. In 1236, with Richard Earl of Cornwall, and many other noble persons, he was signed with the cross for an expedition to the Holy Land, after when, he died, anno 1248. He very probably was father to Richard before mentioned, 26 Ed. I.; and to Thomas Sward, who, by Matthew Paris, is represented juvenis militia præclarus.” - Banks.

The Anglo-Saxon personal name.