Sweet Surname
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Sweet family name dates back to the time of the Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain. It comes from an early member of the family who was a person who was referred to as swete, which is an Old English word used to describe a sweet or gentle person.
First found in Somerset and Devonshire where they held a family seat from very ancient times, some say before the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 A.D.
The Swete/Sweet Families living at the time of the Norman Conquest were thanes; men who were required to fight for an over lord and yet were within the social status holding them to places of responsibility. Each was required to provide horse, chain mail, and battle ax for themselves (or an appointed if they were too old) as well as like service in kind by a number of men depending on the amount of land they held. Their land was taken from them after the Battle of Hastings.
The Sweet Family primarily lived in Devonshire at Dartmouth from 1210 or earlier until 1348 when they were amongst the most prominent families, even representing Dartmouth to the King on several occasions. There were ten branches of the family in 1332 living between Plymouth in the West and Exeter in the East, with the main branch at Dartmouth. This information is published in "The Devonshire Lay Subsidy of 1332 published by the Devon & Cornwall Record Society, New Series Volume 14.
The Sweet family resided at the manor house of Traine in Modbury from 1472 until the mid 1850's. These are the only known families of the name living within Somerset and Devonshire during this early period.
Some of the first settlers of this name or some of its variants were: Robert Sweet who settled in Virginia in 1623; George settled there in 1653; Thomas Sweet settled in Boston, Massachusetts in 1633; William Sweet settled in Virginia in 1654.
