Show ContentsHomewood History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Early Origins of the Homewood family

The surname Homewood was first found in Sussex where they held a family seat as Lords of the Manor. The Saxon influence of English history diminished after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The language of the courts was French for the next three centuries and the Norman ambience prevailed. But Saxon surnames survived and the family name was first referenced in the year 1279 when William Homewood held estates in Sussex. The name was interchangeable with Homeward and Homeworth.

Early History of the Homewood family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Homewood research. Another 89 words (6 lines of text) covering the years 1296, 1455 and 1487 are included under the topic Early Homewood History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Homewood Spelling Variations

Sound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Homewood family name include Homewood, Holmewood, Homeward, Holmeward, Homeworth, Holmeworth, Homewood, Homward and many more.

Early Notables of the Homewood family

Distinguished members of the family include

  • the Homewood family of Sussex


United States Homewood migration to the United States +

For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, Canada, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Early immigrants bearing the Homewood surname or a spelling variation of the name include:

Homewood Settlers in United States in the 17th Century
  • James Homewood, who settled in Maryland in 1649
  • Thomas Homewood, who settled in Maryland in 1650 with his wife
  • Thomas Homewood, who arrived in Maryland in 1650 [1]
Homewood Settlers in United States in the 19th Century
  • Josiah Boydell Homewood, who arrived in Philadelphia in 1846
  • George Homewood, who was on record in Nebraska in 1859

New Zealand Homewood migration to New Zealand +

Emigration to New Zealand followed in the footsteps of the European explorers, such as Captain Cook (1769-70): first came sealers, whalers, missionaries, and traders. By 1838, the British New Zealand Company had begun buying land from the Maori tribes, and selling it to settlers, and, after the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, many British families set out on the arduous six month journey from Britain to Aotearoa to start a new life. Early immigrants include:

Homewood Settlers in New Zealand in the 19th Century
  • Mr. Thomas Homewood, (b. 1862), aged 17, British settler travelling from Plymouth aboard the ship "Stad Haarlem" arriving in Wellington, New Zealand in 1879 [2]

Contemporary Notables of the name Homewood (post 1700) +

  • Robert Homewood (b. 1952), English professional footballer
  • Bartley John Homewood (1932-1988), English former football referee
  • Thomas Homewood (1881-1945), British bronze tug of war medalist at the 1908 Summer Olympics
  • William Dennis Homewood (1920-1989), British Labour Party politician

RMS Lusitania
  • Mr. William Thomas Homewood, American 2nd Class passenger from Toledo, Ohio, USA, who sailed aboard the RMS Lusitania (1915) and died in the sinking [3]


  1. Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
  2. New Zealand Yesteryears Passenger Lists 1800 to 1900 (Retrieved 26th March 2019). Retrieved from http://www.yesteryears.co.nz/shipping/passlist.html
  3. Lusitania Passenger List - The Lusitania Resource. (Retrieved 2014, March 6) . Retrieved from http://www.rmslusitania.info/lusitania-passenger-list/


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