This interesting name which is found in the modern spellings as Chew and Shew can be either locational from the village of Chew in Somerset or a nickname. In the latter and more usual instance, the name derives from the Olde English 'Cio or Ceo', meaning a crow or jackdaw, the nickname applying to a person who' chattered'! The name in its various spellings was never common, but was originally recorded across the country. The name recording and deveolpment includes Elizabeth Shew christened at St. Gregorys by St. Pauls, London in 1629, Robert Chew of Billington, Cheshire in 1591 and Mary Shoe, who married Robert Reed at Clerkenwell in 1726. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Geoffrey Chive, which was dated 1203, in the Kings Rolls of Cambridge, during the reign of King John, known as 'Lackland', 1199 - 1216. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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