Haywood, Heywood, Hayward, or Heawood?

Question

The Haywood Name Study (which covers all those spellings) is LIVE with the new template, restructuring the main page.  The meaning and origin of the surname are there, as well as early namebearers.  A list of some notable namebearers, including Heywood men on HMS Bounty, plus writers, pastors, cricketers and photographers from around the world make their appearance.

569 Haywood-and-other-spellings profiles are part of the Haywood Name Study.  Will yours join them?  Add [[Category:Haywood Name Study]] and you're set!

Answer 1

History of the Early Settlement of Bridgewater, in Plymouth County, Massachusetts [Including an Extensive Family Register] by Nahum Mitchell  on page 197 explains the different spellings of "Hayward", "Haward" and "Howard" here in the States. John Howard settled in Duxbury and removed to West Bridgewater a. 1651 He spelled his name Haward, but it seems after 1700 his descendants started spelling it Howard. (That seems to be how it was pronounced) Thomas Hayward settled in Duxbury before 1638 and removed to Bridgewater. My family has always spelled it Hayward from Thomas Hayward (came from England and died in Bridgewater, Plymouth, MA in 1681. I have not gone further back than him.

Answer 2

My great grandmother married a Heywood (after the birth of my grandmother - I am not related to the ancestors only the descendants).  He was from London and his ancestry is based in Devon.  Some carried another family middle name of Hamlyn/Hamley.  Thus they were Hamlyn Heywood or William Hamley Heywood - son William Frederick Heywood... Or William Hamlyn Heywood (d. 1891 Bideford in Devon, England).  I think Bideford is an ancestral home for some Heywoods in the UK (not of any other spelling as far as I know, but not unlikely...).

Note there is also a grave to a William '''Heyward''' (d.1941 in Nelson, NZ)