The Shepherdson StoryThe East-West Connection

The Shepherdson surname is the 2 985^th most common surname in Great Britain where an estimated 3255 people share the Shepherdson surname.

Many of the Shepherdsons today as well as in other parts of the world can trace their family roots to the county of Yorkshire. Using genealogy data available from the International Genealogical Index as a reference, there was a large community of Shepherdsons living in Yorkshire from the 1800s to the early 19^th century, representing more than 50% of all Shepherdson records during that period. Before Yorkshire, the records suggest that there was a large community of Shepherdsons living in Durham in the 1500-1600s.

Today, according to the Sofemine Web site, there is a large concentration of Shepherdsons (>5%) living Fife country, where the surname is the 106^th most popular surname. Besides England, there are Shepherdsons living in US, Canada, Australia as well as in Singapore and Malaysia.

Shepherdsons (or Shepardson as it is spelled in the US) wanting to know their family roots should refer to research done  by Francis Wayland Shepherdson in the early 1900s

In one publication titled “The Shepardson Family – Branches of the Family in the United States when the First Census was Taken in 1790”. there were Shepherdsons living in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire. The author (who wrote in 1915) believes that most Shepherdsons with a few exceptions of people who came directly from England since 1790, are descended from these families. According to the 1790 census, there were 25 families consisting of 135 Shepherdson family members. The largest family recorded was Jonathan Shepardson of Royalson, Massachusetts. Eleven of these families were residing in or near Guildford, Vermont. One of the earliest records was Daniel Shepardson, a blacksmith of Charlestown, died on 26 July, 1644. For more details about his descendants, click here.

According to the HouseOfNames,  many people migrated to the New World (as the US was then called) because of the enormous political and religious disarray that struck England at that time. Their research indicate that some of the first settlers were: Ann Shipperson, who came to Maryland in 1683; john shepherdson who arrived in America in 1773.

A large number of the Shepherdsons in Canada can probably trace their ancestry to a Thomas Shepherdson, who with his wife, Elizabeth emigrated from England to Canada about 1857.

According to research done by Clair Shepherdson in his book “The Shepherdson Family”, the history of the Shepherdson in Canada can be traced back to William Shepherdson who married Ann Hobson on June 22 1762, in Yorkshire England. Clair gives a quick overview of the life of Thomas and Elizabeth in England and Canada as well as documents their five children who were born in Canada. . The major portion of the book is based on the life and descendants of their fourth child, William.

This William was a farmer and an inventor and became very well known as a timber frame barn builder. He, with his sons, operated a saw mill, a blacksmith shop, a shingle mill and provided other services for the local trades in Wellington County.

The family moved to Northern Ontario where they started the operations and also went into the construction and building business, where the business prospered. The subsequent generations of Shepherdsons became part of several of these operations.

Many Shepherdsons in Australia can trace their genealogy to John Banks Shepherdson who arrived in Australia from Yorkshire in 1837. Born in 1809, he was a school master and magistrate. He was the son of George Shepherdson (1774-1838), a devout Wesleyan Methodist.

Researcher Eric Spehr, the great great grandson of John Banks says that he was the first of several Shepherdsons to migrate to Australia.  Eric published John’s bibliography in 2006 and for more than two decades, has been gathering family trees of all known Shepherdson families in Australia.  

In his detailed and well-researched publication, Eric also publishes the ancestral chart which documents all of John Banks descendants, many of them who now reside in various states in Australia.

There are more than 300 Shepherdsons living in Singapore and Malayia today, all of whom descended from two brothers – Captain Robert and Captain Matthew Shepherdson – who arrived in the Far East in the late 1700s from Ramsgate, England. They were free mariners (or country traders) involved in the British East India country trade and took up residences in Bombay, Malacca and the Prince of Wales Island (Penang)

The entire genealogy which dates back to the 1600s is documented in the book “Journey to the Straits – The Shepherdson story” by Kevin and Percival Shepherdson (the editors of this Web site), who spent more 15 years of research.

The publication led to the historic family reunion of Shepherdsons in the Singapore and Malaysia. According to our research, the Asian Shepherdsons can possibly trace their genealogy to the county of Durham before 1600s.