Howarth is a surname of Anglo-Saxon origin, most commonly found among families originating in the English counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire, especially around the village of Great Howarth near Rochdale, Lancashire and Haworth in Yorkshire. It is found in a variety of different interrelated spellings, including Haworth and Howorth, and derives from one of two meanings, hoh-worth, meaning settlement on a small hill, and haga-worth, settlement surrounded by a hawthorn hedge. The first recorded use of the surname in its current spelling is from 1616; earlier varieties are found as far back as Robert de Hawrth in 1200. Other historical spellings of the name include Hearwarthe and Huarth.
Howarth of Great Howarth
The Howarths of Great Howarth were a landed family originally granted land in what became Great Howarth in Honorsfield, three miles north east of Rochdale in the 12th century. The Norroy Kings of Arms recorded their genealogies on their visitations of Lancashire in 1613 and 1664. The original Elizabethan Howarth Hall in Great Howarth was demolished in the early 19th century. The Howarth of Great Howarth family were an important family in the Rochdale area from the 12th to the 18th century. Their estates were however dispersed in 1768 on the death of the last representative of the main line the Rev. Dr. Radclyffe Howarth, D.C.L. A pedigree of the family was set out in summary after the Visitation of Lancashire by Richard St. George, Norroy King of Arms, in 1613 and later in much more detail by Sir William Dugdale, Norroy King of Arms, in 1664/65, following his Lancashire Visitation of 1664. Dugdale detailed the Howarth family’s descent from Osbert Howard de Haworth, a Keeper of the King's Buckhounds, in the 12th century until 1665, when Dugdale’s friend, Dr. Theophilus Howarth, was head of the Howarth family.
Sir William Dugdale stated that Sir William Howard of Wiggenhall, progenitor of the powerful Howard family, was descended from Robert, a younger brother of Michael Howarth of Great Howarth. Sir William Howard, who lived in Norfolk during the 13th and early 14th centuries, became a judge and founded the line that later became Barons and Earls and Dukes of Norfolk. The early references in the 13th century Charters to Peter Howarth as “Peter the clerk of Haword” may lend credence to this theory.
Arms: Azure, a bend between two stags’ heads, couped, Crest on an Earl’s helmet, a wreath Or and Azure, a Stag’s head couped and horned Or. The Mantles dependent being gules, doubled, or lined Argent. Motto: Quod Ero Spero
