Origin of Escudero

Some writers try to make all the families of this surname derive from the same primitive solar and trunk, but the data they provide (many of them collected from legends that do not deserve any guarantee) show precisely the opposite, this is: that there were different houses of this surname with no relationship between them by link or kinship, which also confirms the variety of arms that the descendants of those houses held and hold.

The origins of these different plots of the Escudero surname are not well clarified either, only the fable being the one that explains the formation of some of them.

We will briefly collect, and only by way of curiosity and information, the legends that various authors refer to discover the origins of some plots of the last name in question.

Memory chronicles do to explain the origin of the Escudero family, settled in ancient times in the town of Espinosa de los Monteros, in the province of Burgos, from a squire of the Count of Castilla Sancho García, who having learned of that Sancha Oña, also called by some Aba, mother of said Count, had prepared a poison to kill her son, who was opposed to his marrying the Moorish King of Córdoba, Mahomad Almohadir, discovered the terrible plot, freeing his lord of certain death. Adds the legend that we collect, that Count Sancho García, to reward such extraordinary service, instituted in said squire and his relatives the guard of his person, granting him numerous privileges, which have since been preserved by the Huntsmen of Espinosa, from whose town the native was born. mentioned squire.

But more guaranteed historical data contradicts that fabulous version, affirming that the only thing that the repeated Count Sancho García did in 1013 was grant his very loyal butler Sancho Pelayes, a native of Espinosa de los Monteros, that he and the others of this town kept the royal person at night.

Neither do these data of more historical guarantee say, that this guard was instituted by Sancho García as a consequence of having discovered his mother's sinister plans, and even supposing that this had been the cause, it was his butler who deserved such a distinction and not a squire, so it cannot be admitted, as the maintainers of this legend try to maintain, that in memory of the noble action of the anonymous squire, his descendants with a house in Espinosa de los Monteros were named Escudero.

The only certain and proven thing is that in the vicinity of the mentioned town there was an old solar house of the surname Escudero.

Knights of this house settled in Baeza (Jaén), where they were considered good sons of the dalgo, according to Barahona. Lines from that same site were also extended through Castilla and Extremadura, and some undoubtedly passed to Portugal, because the Lusitanian Escudeiro use the same weapons as the Escudero of the house of the town of Espinosa de los Monteros.

He also had solar houses in Aragon, Castilla, Navarra and the Basque Country.

In Castilla they located their solar houses in Aguilar de Campos, Fombellida, Simancas, Tudela de Duero, Valladolid, Villalbarba and Villalón de Campos (all in Valladolid).

In Aragon, he had solar houses in Berbegal (Huesca), his owner Johan Escudero; in Jorcas its owner Martín Escudero; in Perales de Alfambra (both in Teruel), its owner Pero Escudero; in La Almunia de Doña Godina, its owner Johan Escudero, and in Novillas, its owner Pero Escudero, documented in the Aragonese Fogueración of 1495, and in Daroca (all in Zaragoza), its owner D. Escudero, cited in 1230.

Branches from the estates of Arnedo (La Rioja) and Corella (Navarra) went to Aragon and settled there, using weapons almost identical to those brought by the La Riojan and Navarrese Squires, as will be seen later. One of those Aragonese branches established itself in Estadilla, in the province of Huesca.

Gil Escudero, a resident of Luna (Zaragoza), obtained a plea of ​​infancy before the Court of the Higher Justice of Aragon in 1263.

Pasqual Escudero was a resident of Alpont (València) in 1396.

In Navarra, he had solar houses in the town of Larraga, in Merindad de Olite, his owner Domingo Escudero; in the town of Azagra, in the Merindad de Estella, its owners Yennego Escudero. Johan Escudero and Remiro, son of Johan Escudero; in the town of Sesma, in Merindad de Estella, its owner Johan Escudero; in the town of Miranda de Arga, of the Merindad de Olite, its owner Pascoal Escudero, documented in the Navarrese Fogueración of 1329; in the town of Cortes, in the Merindad de Tudela, its owners Ferrando Escudero, Pedro Escudero and Viçent Escudero; in the town of Buñuel, in the Merindad de Tudela, its owner Per Escudero,documented in the Fogueración of 1350; in the town of Cáseda, in the Merindad de Sangüesa, its owner Garcia Escudero; in the place of Urroz, of the Merindad de Pamplona, ​​its owner Garcia Escudero; in the place of Salinas Cabe Pamplona, ​​its owner Martín Escudero; in the city of Pamplona, ​​its owner Miguel Escudero; in the place of Erroz, of the Merindad de Pamplona, ​​its owner Miguel Escudero; in the city of Estella, its owner Sancho Escudero, and in the town of Peralta, in the Merindad de Olite, its owner Per Escudero, documented in the Fogueración of 1366; in the city of Olite, its owners G. Escudero and N. Escudero, documented in 1264, and in the city of Cascante, in the Merindad de Tudela.

In Alava he had solar houses in the town of Yécora, its owner Johan Periz de Escudero, son of Johan Escudero, documented in 1329, and in the town of Viñaspre, of the Brotherhood of La Guardia, its owner Pero Escudero, documented in 1366.

Another house was located in the town of Lanestosa (Vizcaya). This house stood behind the church, and had a quartered shield on its façade with an escutcheon over the whole, containing the arms of Escudero, which will be described later. Lines of that house lived in the valley of Carranza (Vizcaya) and in the valley of Soba (Cantabria).

In Cantabria he had a solar house in the Obregón area, in the Villaescusa valley, and in the Soba valley. Both with different coats of arms, as will be seen later.

Other houses were located in Zafra and in the town of Alburquerque, both in the province of Badajoz, and in La Parra de la Vegas, in the province of Cuenca, with a chapel in its parish church.

Another house was located in the town of Aracena (Huelva). Of this were the brothers Juan and Lorenzo Fernández Escudero, in honor of whom King Don Juan II gave a Royal decree while he was in Antequera, on September 26, 1410, so that they were deleted from the register of bibs in which they had been included, and their hijosdalgo knighthoods would be kept to them. These Escuderos became related to the Ojeda family, and resided in Jerez de la Frontera (Cádiz). Juan Nepomuceno Escudero y Ojeda was a Doctorate of the Metropolitan of Seville, and Salvador Jesús Escudero de Ojeda, Lawyer in Jurisprudence, Honorary Navy Auditor and resident of Jerez de la Frontera.

They went to Argentina, Chile, the United States, the Philippines, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic.