Shacklefords, Virginia

Shacklefords is an unincorporated community in King and Queen County, Virginia, United States. It derives its name from the Shackleford (or Shackelford) family, of whom the earliest American ancestor was Roger Shackelford, who was born in Old Alresford, Hampshire, England, in 1629. [A descendant of Roger Shackelford, Lt. Col. Robert Baylor Shackelford of the U.S. Army Medical Corps (Ret.), published an extensive genealogy of the Shackelford family printed in Charlottesville, Va., in 1940. Lt. Col. Shackelford retained the English genealogist Anthony Wagner (later to become Sir Anthony Wagner, head of the College of Heralds and one of the world's leading authorities on heraldry and genealogy) to trace the antecedents of the immigrant Roger. Lt. Col. Shackelford printed Wagner's findings, chiefly that Shackelford's immigrant ancestor came from the English middle to lower classes, that the immigrant ancestor's uncle was a butcher (and not a knight), and that no Shackelford had ever been granted coats-of-arms in England. Despite results that some clients might have found disappointing, a solid friendship formed between Lt. Col Shackelford and Wagner, who traveled to Virginia to vacation at Shackelford's home in Albemarle County.] (The orthography of the name of Roger Shackelford's descendants varies, sometimes spelled 'el' and sometimes 'le.')

The immigrant Roger Shackelford was first mentioned in Gloucester County, in a grant of land in 1658. One branch of the Shackelford family are descendants of President Thomas Jefferson. [ [http://vip.lib.virginia.edu:8080/cocoon/vivaead/published/uva-sc/viu03343.document A Guide to the Shackelford Family Papers, Alderman Memorial Library, University of Virginia] ] The family likely took its name from the village of Shackleford, Surrey County, England, which is an adjoining county to Hampshire and located not far from London.

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