Family name origins & meanings
- Scottish : habitational name from a place in the parish of Gordon, Berwickshire, first recorded in 1249 as Spottiswode. The second element is Middle English wode ‘wood’; the first appears to derive from a personal name.
- All bearers of this surname are probably descended from Robert de Spotswood (fl. c.1300). Alexander Spotswood, a British army officer born in Tangiers in 1676, was appointed lieutenant governor of VA in 1710, was removed from office in 1722 for his support of VA colonists, and died in Annapolis, MD, while raising a colonial regiment to fight the Spanish.