Spurlin Wiki

Home › Genealogy

Early Spurlin and Spurling families in America

Spurlin and Spurling families appear in colonial Virginia and North Carolina in the 18th century and moved west and south into Indiana, Alabama and Texas during the 19th century. Their European origins are still debated.

Sourcing: mixed 2 commercial · 6 reference · 3 genealogy · 1 book

Colonial beginnings

SPURLIN: A Spurlin Family in America (compiled by Quincy Haggard Spurlin, edited by George Spurlin, 1987, 230 pages) begins its line with Jeremiah Spurling (1680–1725). It follows the family through several generations, including settlement in Texas before the Civil War[1]. Norman Kent Spurling's two-volume Spurling family history in Virginia & North Carolina, with early history of Spurlings, Sperlings & Sparlings in many other areas (Beltsville, Maryland, 1998) also focuses on Virginia and North Carolina[2].

The collaborative genealogy site WikiTree listed 361 Spurlin profiles in September 2026. They include 18th-century Spurlins born in the Virginia colony, such as Isaac Spurlin (born about 1772), and in Richmond County, North Carolina, such as John Jesse Spurlin (born 1783)[3]. These are user-contributed trees and should be checked against original records. The best-documented early line is that of the Jeremiah Spurlings of Westmoreland and Fairfax counties, Virginia (see Jeremiah Spurling of Colonial Virginia).

'Big John' Spurling

The FamilyTreeDNA Sperling/Spurling project reports that testing supports "a Proto-Germanic origin" for "Big John" Spurling. It gives his dates as born about 1740 and died 1821 in Lincoln County, North Carolina. It says researchers gave him the nickname because he had 23 named descendants[4]. A 1982 family article says he had 23 children at the time of his 1822 will[5]. The project's public results place a descendant of Big John in the same Y-DNA lineage as testers who trace their ancestry to Jeremiah Spurling of Virginia[6]. On FamilyTreeDNA's tree the line sits deep within haplogroup R-U106[7]. That branch reaches its highest frequency in Friesland and its largest numbers in central Europe[8], but a split that old cannot show whether the family came from Germany or England. The Big John tester gives England as his earliest known origin[6]. Whether Big John was a son of the Virginia Jeremiah Spurling is still unproven (see "Big John" Spurling and the Spurlin DNA Project).

Westward movement

Ancestry's analysis of historical US censuses found the most Spurlin households in Indiana in 1840, where 8 families made up about 36% of those recorded[9]. By the 20th century the largest shares were in Texas, Alabama and North Carolina[10]. A ranching community called Spurlin existed in Hamilton County, Texas, until it was abandoned in the late 1980s. The cited article does not say whom it was named for[11]. For the main family lines state by state, see Spurlin family lines by state.

Later immigrants

Most American Spurlins descend from colonial-era families. HouseofNames, a commercial source, cites later arrivals from passenger lists, such as a Catherine Spurlin who arrived in New York from Southampton in 1907[12]. Ancestry holds 318 immigration records for the surname[9].

See also

  • Sperling/Spurling DNA surname project · Genealogy mixed
    FamilyTreeDNA hosts a volunteer-run Y-DNA surname project, 'Sperling Spurling', for Spurlin, Spurling, Sparlin, Sparling, Sperlin, Sperling, Spirlin and Spirling lines. Its largest group links descendants of Jeremiah Spurling of Virginia with descendants of 'Big John' Spurlin of Lincoln County, North Carolina.
  • Published Spurlin and Spurling family histories · Genealogy mixed
    The main published genealogies are Quincy Haggard Spurlin's 'SPURLIN: A Spurlin Family in America' (1987) and Norman Kent Spurling's two-volume 'Spurling family history in Virginia & North Carolina' (1998). Shorter family articles appear in county heritage books, and the largest online trees are on WikiTree and FamilySearch.
  • Geographic distribution of the Spurlin surname · The Surname strong
    Almost all people named Spurlin live in the United States, especially Texas, Alabama and North Carolina today and Indiana in the 19th century. The fuller spelling Spurling is still found in England (especially East Anglia and London), Australia, Canada and Bermuda.
  • Spurlin, Texas · Places mixed
    Spurlin is a ghost town in northwestern Hamilton County, Texas. It was laid out on the Stephenville North and South Texas Railway in 1908–1909 and named for its promoter, the Hamilton merchant John L. Spurlin. It had a church and a business in 1936 and had disappeared from maps by the late 1980s.
  • Early English records of Spurling and Sperling · The Surname strong
    Forms of the name appear in English records from the late 12th century, such as Alexander Sperling (Yorkshire, 1187). Nicholas Sperlyng sat for Wycombe in Parliament in 1402, and Tudor and Stuart records place Spurlinges in Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, west Middlesex and Buckinghamshire, and East Anglia, including the serjeant-at-law and MP John Spurling (d. 1603).
  • Emma Spurlin Patman and Wright Patman · History strong
    Emma (Spurlin) Patman was the mother of Wright Patman (1893–1976), a Texas congressman for 47 years, co-author of the Robinson–Patman Act and longtime chairman of the House Banking Committee.
  • Spurlins of Ashe and Alleghany Counties, North Carolina · Genealogy weak
    Spurlins from Fairfax County, Virginia, settled in the Blue Ridge counties of Ashe and Alleghany, North Carolina, in the late 18th century. Descendants served in the 22nd North Carolina Infantry, were merchants and farmers around Sparta and Ennice in the 20th century, and gave their name to three family burial grounds.
  • Spurlins of Christian County, Kentucky · Genealogy mixed
    Spurlin families from North Carolina were in Christian County, in western Kentucky, by about 1800. Later generations included a line of Baptist preachers who served churches around Hopkinsville and in neighbouring Trigg County, and the county has a Spurlin Cemetery north of Hopkinsville.
  • Spurlins of Cleveland and Rutherford Counties, North Carolina · Genealogy mixed
    The Spurlin line of Cleveland and Rutherford counties, North Carolina, descends from Isaac Spurlin Sr. (c. 1770–c. 1854), son of John ("Big John") and Myally Spurlin. It is traced through deeds, censuses, an 1826 North Carolina Supreme Court case, Confederate rosters and family graves around Shelby and Ellenboro.
  • Spurlins of Fentress County, Tennessee · Genealogy mixed
    Spurlins were among the early families on the Wolf River in Fentress County, Tennessee, where Daniel Spurlin is said to have started the family's Spurlin Cemetery in 1858. A 1920 county history profiles M. H. Spurlin, a Wilder lawman and justice of the peace.
  • Spurlins of New Hampshire · Genealogy mixed
    A New England Spurlin family lived in Madbury, Dover, Pittsfield and Epsom, New Hampshire, from the 18th century. Several members served in the Civil War, among them Charles Spurlin of Pittsfield in the 7th New Hampshire Volunteers and Charles F. Spurlin of Dover in the 11th New Hampshire Infantry.
  • The Spurlin name outside the United States · Culture strong
    Spurlin is an overwhelmingly American surname today, with about 98% of bearers in the United States. The spelling is older than American settlement: English archives record Spurlins in Middlesex and Bristol between 1670 and 1717, and 18th-century leases name a field called 'Spurlins' in Hertfordshire. Outside the U.S. the related form Spurling is far more common.

References

  1. ↑ SPURLIN: A Spurlin Family in America — Higginson Book Company — Publisher's description Commercial
  2. ↑ Spurling family history in Virginia & North Carolina ... by Norman Kent Spurling — Open Library — Catalogue record (LCCN 99231270) Reference
  3. ↑ Spurlin Genealogy — WikiTree — Surname page listing 361 Spurlin profiles, September 2026 Genealogy
  4. ↑ Sperling Spurling — Overview — FamilyTreeDNA group project Genealogy
  5. ↑ "The John Spurlin Family" (article 1011, by Norman Kent Spurling), in The Heritage of Cleveland County (1982) — Internet Archive Book
  6. ↑ ↑ Spurlin Spurling Sparlin Sparling — Y-DNA Results Overview — FamilyTreeDNA Genealogy
  7. ↑ Haplogroup R-BY141437 — Ancestral Path — FamilyTreeDNA Discover Reference
  8. ↑ Haplogroup R-M269 — Wikipedia — Section on R-U106 Reference
  9. ↑ ↑ Spurlin Surname Meaning & Spurlin Family History — Ancestry.com — Quotes Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd ed. (2022): 'English: variant of Spurling' Reference
  10. ↑ Spurlin Surname Origin, Meaning & Last Name History — Forebears Reference
  11. ↑ Spurlin, Texas — Wikipedia Reference
  12. ↑ Spurlin Name Meaning, Family History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms — HouseofNames (commercial) — Commercial crest vendor; lower reliability Commercial

#genealogy #colonial #virginia #north-carolina #texas #indiana

Last reviewed 2026-09-24.