Do a lot of black people have the last name Glover? Where did that come from?

Question

Do a lot of black people have the last name Glover? Where did that come from?

Answer 1

I found this on www.ancestry.com

Glover Name Meaning and History

English: occupational name for a maker or seller of gloves, Middle English glovere, an agent noun from Old English glof ‘glove’.

and this came from a web site called http://www.surnamedb.com/

Surname: Glover

This most interesting surname, of medieval English origin, was occupational. It described a maker or seller of gloves, deriving from the pre 7th century word "glof". Job-descriptive surnames originally denoted the actual occupation of the namebearer and only later became hereditary when a son followed his father into the same line of business. It is probable that that a glover may also have been a skilled engineer, in that in some cases it is known that he manufactured steel gauntlets to go with suits of armour. The surname was first recorded in the mid 13th Century (see below). and early examples include Richard le Glovere in the Hundred Rolls of Bedford in 1273, whilst the Poll Tax records for Doncaster in Yorkshire mention a Thomas Glover in 1379. Later church register recordings include that on December 16th 1547, of Alyce Glover who was christened at St. Stephen's church, Coleman Street, and Anne Glover who married Daniell Connell on August 11th 1566 at Saint Giles Cripplegate, both in the city of London. Richard Glover was an early emigrant to the New World colonies. He is listed as a passenger on the ship "Assurance", which left London in July 1635, bound for Virginia. A notable nambearer was Sir John Hawley Glover (1829 - 1885), colonial governor of Newfoundland from 1875 - 1884. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William le Glouere. This was dated 1250, in the Middle English Surnames of Occupation", during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

When you are researching African American ancestry, it is necessary to make a mind shift.  Only a very few freedmen (free prior to emancipation) will have any last names at all.  Those who were slaves until 1865, did not have a last name, and adopted a new surname.  It *might* be the name of the prior owner's family, and sometimes not.

Thus, the NAME may have come from English sources. If you are African American, that won't be relevant to your ancestry.. only to the name.  Your ancestry will be where your actual family members originated.  For the most part, that will lead back to Africa.. however you cannot assume that there is no Caucasian ancestry in the background either.