Spatial Cluster Analysis

The process of quantifying and mapping the distribution Fisher families over several centuries and establishing a continuity of occupation in a certain locality will, when finally extended to cover all UK counties, provide a geographical framework for the identification of the origins of Fisher haplotypes discovered by the DNA survey.

Fishers in Buckinghamshire

It is reasonable to speculate that a high proportion of medieval Fishers that appear in localised clusters descend from a common ancestor: whether they possessed a surname or not sons generally followed the occupation of their father for two or three generations.

Our early ancestors were able to travel considerable distances but most either did not or at least returned to the village of their birth. The net effect is that the majority of descendants of a particular Fisher ancestor would over time disperse very gradually. The modern distribution of a surname is widely acknowledged as a reflection of its medieval origins; a pattern partially distorted by 19th century population movements.

To test this we will look at a county, which largely escaped the effects of heavy population movements. In Buckinghamshire we examined the Inquests and Indictments of 1373-1393, the Certificate of Musters, 1522, and the Posse Comitatus, 1798.

Two clusters appear in all three data sets: one in the north of the county around the market town of Olney, the other a string of parishes along the River Thames in the south. The proportion of the Fishers found in these two clusters represented 40% to 50% of all Fishers recorded in these documents—all remaining references were isolates, which appeared or disappeared in subsequent data sets.

Although the references in the three data sets have not been linked by genealogical research it would be extraordinary if these clusters were not evidence of continuous settlement by related Fisher families.

As a postscript we also analysed a section of Fisher references in 1881 Census by selecting working males who were born and who still lived in Buckinghamshire. This revealed some changes firstly the southern cluster had disappeared, the northern cluster now represented 53% of the sample and a new cluster appeared at Aylesbury, the county town. There is a strong possibility that any Fisher found today in the proximity of Olney would prove to be a member of a family that had lived in the same area for at least six centuries.

A millennium of Fishers in Northamptonshire?

The Domesday Book, 1086 has no direct value for surname studies but it does tell us the location of “fisheries” at the end of the 11th century. In Northamptonshire these were recorded at Raunds, Denford, Wadenhoe, Oundle, Warmington and Ashton. Three hundred years later The Poll Tax, 1379 recorded Fishers at Irchester, Higham Ferrers, Lowick, Woodford, Wollaston, Irthlingborough, Finedon, Kings Cliffe and Fotheringhay. Another four hundred years and The Militia Lists of 1777, which recorded all men between ages 18-45, listed Fishers at Rushden, Harpole, Wilby, Great Brington, Woodford, Whilton, Hardingstone, Bugbrooke, Old, and Northampton. Finally The 1881 Census records 51 heads of household but only 28 were born in the county. These form three clusters: 54% of the sample was centred on Northampton and surrounding villages, 32% in the east of the county on the boundary with Bedfordshire and 11% centred on the town of Peterborough.

The area around Peterborough is not covered by the 1777 Militia List or the 1379 Poll Tax so we cannot be sure of the age of this cluster. The cluster at Northampton, however, is well represented in 1777 but the 1379 records are limited to the town only and there are no Fishers recorded. The cluster on the boundary with Bedfordshire is evident in all the datasets and even corresponds with the fisheries in the Domesday Book hinting at the possibility of a 1000 year ancestry.

These are analogue methods – more scientific forms of spatial cluster analysis are common to thematic geography but their application to genealogy has not yet been established.

Contact: fisher@one-name.org