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Origin / History of the Sheather/Shaffer Name

This is an occupational name, ‘the sheather’ originally given to a maker of sword-slips.  The name derives from the Olde English pre-7^th Century ‘scaep’ or ‘sceap’ meaning ‘a case for a sword’.  The surname is first recorded at the beginning of the 14^th Century. An alternate spelling Shether appears in the 1379 Poll Tax Records of Yorkshire - ‘Johanna Shether’.  The name is spelt Sheather with the name Swordslipper being synonymous.  The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Henry le Schether(e), in The Register of the Freemen of York City 1302.

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