Mower - Moore Family Page

WITHOUT doubt as to the historical fact, the English people began their migration to America in earnest when, after passing many leagues of almost untried, foam-crested waters,

"A band of Exiles moored their bark

On the wild New England shore."

This was in 1620, but that brave deed of our New England paternity opened to vision the first act of a great drama, the plot and play of which is now so well known.

The name Mower is not a common one in New England, nor in Old England either. In the old country appear two families or branches of the same name, in Devonshire and Derbyshire, each having their coat of arms and history. The Derby family is very old. In the Encyclopedia, of Heraldry and General Armory of England, Scotland and Ireland, by John Burke, Esq., London, is the following: Mower -- Woodseats to Derby, time Henry VI; represented, when Samuel Lysons wrote, by George Mower of Holt house in Darley, Esq.; (Arms) Erm. on a chev. az. three roses gu. (Crest) A dove and olive branch proper. Devon. arms, arg. two chev. gu. (See illustration.) The somewhat quaint origin of the name Mower, as traditionally understood, is given in the book of English Surnames by Mark Anthony Lower: "In the life of Hereward the Saxon, who flourished about 1070, an opponent of William I in England, one of the last of this race who withstood the Norman Conquests, are found several such names as Leofrick the Mower, front 3is having overcome 20 men with a scythe, etc." -- It would appear from this that the earliest ancestry were of the old Saxon race or Saxon blood. The Normans made their; conquest complete in 1066, Henry VI began his reign in 1422; and to make the matter of early dates still more interesting, it may be added that in the Halls of Heraldry, London, where records of all the English families of note are kept, are family data and records, by complete generations, back to 1300! thus showing a strong line of ancestral history. The name is also found in Scotland, scattered descendants presumably of the earlier English families.