_The Surname Bywater._--Can any of your correspondents furnish me with
particulars relating to the surname "_Bywater_?"
The earliest period from which I can trace it _direct_ to the present day,
and then only by family tradition, is about the close of the seventeenth
century, or say 1680, about which time "---- Bywater" married Miss Witham,
and resided at Towton Hall, near Tadcaster, Yorkshire, a place celebrated
as being the field of a battle fought between the York and Lancaster forces
on Palm Sunday, 1461.
Stow mentions, in his _Survey_, that "_John Bywater_" was a Sheriff of
London in 1424.
Perhaps some of your readers, in Yorkshire or elsewhere, can throw a light
on the subject, or can refer me to a book or MS. where information may be
obtained?