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Hello The family name sawyer originates from the men who used to saw the timbers for building purposes. One in a pit and one above used to saw all the building materials for housing, boat building, windmills and much more before mechanical saws were brought into use. When you see a Tudor timber framed house it was the sawyers who cut and supplied the timbers. They were employed by most of the big estate houses such as Calk Abbey near Derby. Here there are records of the saw pit in the stable yard as late as the early 1900. In the original Kitchen of this house there is a work surface that is 6'' thick 18 ' long and 30'' deep one single piece of oak. This would have been pit cut before it was installed in the kitchen. The original fitting out of this kitchen including the ovens cost in total £64.69p. This one piece of timber would alone be worth hundreds today. There is other version of how the name came about however to my belief this is the most accepted version, Yours Paul Sawyer.

Hello....My branch of the Sawyer family originates from Shoreditch in East London, UK. The furthest back I have traced so far is a Henry Sawyer...He was born in the 1820's and became a walking stick maker as did his own three sons...could this be one origin of the name? contact [email protected]