The unusual surname Shropshire and its variations is presumed to be of English origin and probably evolved as a surname meaning "from County Shropshire," in the west of England near the Welsh border.  In the US, Shropshire and associated family descendants, are historically most commonly traced to St. John Shropshire, an Anglican minister in Washington Parish, Westmoreland County, Virginia who lived there in the late 1600s and early 1700s.  He was from Marlborough, Wiltshire. England.  Other Shropshire families are probably from other parts of England and the Y-DNA Project may help sort out these various origins of Shropshire descendants and discover other Shropshire ancestors of families who came to America in colonial times and seem to have settled mainly in Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee, but also other parts of the US, especially New Jersey.