Smout Family History Pages
This is an updated version of the Smout Family name website.
The original version, may be viwed here.
Intercative Smout Family Name Pages are here
Introduction to the Family Name Smout. (updated Jan 2, 2008)
The family name Smout is not very common in the United Kingdom. In 1998 I obtained an Internet White Pages listing, one that has combed the telephone books and and electoral rolls of the UK, and the total number of entries was 191. This listing does not appear to contain any Scottish entries, although we know of a number of people named Smout who live in Scotland.
To read the list of UK Smout's, click here. Smout White Pages Listing.
Some of my immediate family are listed in the directory above, some are not. In our family, consisting of myself, my two brothers, my father, and our own children, we number 11 people aged between 6 months and 81years of age. We only know of a small number of others named Smout to whom we are directly related, some of these are in the UK, others live in Australia. Our family tree has links to many other Smouts who we do not know, including the family of Sir Aurthur Smout, at one time a group director of ICI and a prominent industrialist in the UK in the mid 20th Century era. We are also related to the Scottish historian, Professor T. C. Smout who is one of Arthur Smout's sons.
The family name Smout, although unusual, is very old in the UK, going back at least 500 years, maybe even longer to the time of Edward I, in the 13th century. Edward Longshanks is said by some to have granted the right of residence to Belgians or Franks called Smouts who had skills in sheep and wool management that were essential for the economy from which he derived his wealth in the Marches regions of England & Wales. What is certain is that there are records of Smouts living in Worthen & Pontesbury in the English county of Shropshire as long ago as 1500.
Many of the Smouts shown in the listing above live in or around the midlands region of the UK. My father and grandfather were from the Walsall, Dudley,Wolverhampton area north of Birmingham, and their ancestors may have come from the Shropshire area west of Shrewsbury, surrounding Pontesbury,Westbury and Worthen. The family tree thus far traced, goes back to 1829, with Thomas Smout & his wife Mary langston. Other research has dates of at least 1500, but has not been independently verified or connected with our particular branch.
- Europe. The name Smout is also found in Holland and Belgium. It may be that ancestors of the UK Smout families came from there. A common variation of the Smout name in Holland is Smouter. Other variations which are probably connected are, Smouten and Smoute.
- Canada & USA. The Mormons also list a large number American émigrés named Smout in the Salt Lake City area, from the mid 1800's until the late 1980's.Go to www.familysearch.org to view the Church Of the Later Day Saints site. Some of these émigrés were born and baptised in, or nearby Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Sedgely or Dudley in the midlands. People named Smout have been in contact from the USA and Canada. You can read their messages, along with messages from other Smouts, on the Message Board. (this will be updated to alive forum in 2008)
- In the USA the names SMOOT, SMUTE, SMOOTZ, SMOOTS, SMUT, SMUTS are all listed as being variants of the name SMOUT.
- Click here for the SMOOT Family Association.
- Click here for link to Smoot database: decendants of William SMUTE (b 1596 England)
Origins of the Name ' Smout'. What does it mean?
There are various theories as to the origins of the name Smout, but I have no proof that any are true. What can be said is that it is an unusual surname!
Possible meanings;
- A medieval Dutch/ Flemish name, meaning "a butcher, especially of whale meat."
- A working name given to men who washed or processed wool to remove the natural grease or lanolin, that is; greasing men.
- A working name given to men working in the Dutch printing industry.
- A Scots name, meaning a person of small stature, (Being a small person, Robert Louis Stevenson was known to friends as 'Smout')
- A late medieval English name, given to émigrés from Europe, (again Flemish or Hugenots are suspected), who had skills in steel making, particularly sword making, and who settled in the area near Shrewsbury and Telford. Steel and Iron manufacture began there around the year 1500.
- One Smout thinks it may have connections with PIRATES
Do you have evidence of other possible meanings for this unusual name?
MAKE CONTACT WITH OTHER SMOUTS
- If your surname is 'Smout' I would like to hear from you.
- You may like to e-mail me with any questions about the family name 'Smout'.
- If you can supply any information about the Family Name 'Smout', I should be interested to hear from you.
- You may email here
You can join the Smout E-mail list Yahoo groups
I have begun to compile a Computerised Family Tree for my branch of the Smout family. I cannot guarantee any of the information before 1900, but after that date it should be accurate.
You can either view the tree on-line as web pages, or you can download the files containing the information I have collated.
This Smout family tree contains information collected in the UK by Brenda Smout, of Perth, Australia. She looked into parish records in the town of Westbury, Shropshire. Brenda is my fathers' cousin, her father being my own Grandfathers' brother. I am indebted to Brenda for the information she has collected
COMING SOON;
LIVE DISCUSSION FORUM BOARD