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Origin / History of the Clew Name

Of Anglo-Saxon origin, this unusual name is a peculiarly Devonshire variant of the topographical surname found elsewhere in England as ‘Clough’.  The surname denoted someone who lived near a precipitous slope, in a ravine or steep-sided valley, and is derived from the Old English pre-7^th Century word ‘Cloh’, meaning a ravine or steep valley.  The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard Clowe, which was dated 1275, in the ‘Worcestershire Subsidy Rolls’.  The development of the surname includes: Roster Clough in Oxfordshire 1279; John del Clogh, Yorkshire 1298; Richard Cluff Staffordshire 1428; one Richard Cloke married Alicia Parre at Buckland Monachorum on the 13^th June 1551; and recorded in Devonshire: Robert Cloake 1597; Mary Cloak 1685; and Thomas Clooke 1689.  The Scottish form of the name is ‘Cleugh’, and the modern surname can be found as: Clough; Cluff; Clow; Clew; Clue; and Clues or Clew(e)s.  

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