Beese History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England
Ireland
Scotland

The name is derived from the Old English word "beo," which is modernized as "bee." Accordingly, the name is a nickname for someone who was "busy as a bee."

Early Origins of the Beese family

The surname Beese was first found in Oxfordshire where one of the first records of the name was Walter le Be who was listed there in 1195. A few years later Robert Be was listed in the Curia Regis Rolls of Yorkshire in 1198. William le Beo was listed in the Assize Rolls of Somerset in 1243. 1

Later, Alicia Bee was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax Rolls of 1379 and Thomas Bee was in 1447 listed in Northumberland and Durham. 2

By 1305 they had moved north, probably in the train of Earl David of Huntingdon, who became King David of Scotland, to Dundee, where they also held estates giving birth to the Scottish Bees. There they adopted the spelling of Bie and settled in Hill in Dundee. Captain Stephen le Bie made payment of his dues in 1305. They later branched to Edinburgh, and also to Boreland of Colvend of Dumfriesshire. 3

Early History of the Beese family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Beese research. Another 102 words (7 lines of text) covering the years 1621, 1636, 1637, 1660, 1756 and 1940 are included under the topic Early Beese History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Beese Spelling Variations

Sound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Beese family name include Bee, Bea, Bie, Bees and others.

Early Notables of the Beese family

Notables of this surname at this time include: Cornelius Bee, English bookseller in London; Little Britain, 1636-1637. "He was the son of Thomas Bee, citizen and haberdasher, of London, whose will was proved May 28th, 1621. He appears to have been a man of some capital, and joined Laurence Sadler, in 1637 in the publication of the Atlas...
Another 58 words (4 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Beese Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the Beese family to Ireland

Some of the Beese family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt. More information about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Beese migration to the United States +

For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, Canada, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Early immigrants bearing the Beese surname or a spelling variation of the name include:

Beese Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

George Beese, who landed in St Clair County, Illinois in 1862 4
James Beese, who arrived in St Clair County, Illinois in 1862 4
Abraham Beese, aged 32, who landed in New York, NY in 1874 4

Contemporary Notables of the name Beese (post 1700) +

Artur Beese, German fighter pilot and flying ace in the Luftwaffe, during World War II, credited with 22 aerial victories

Citations +

Reaney, P.H and R.M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames. London: Routledge, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-415-05737-X)
Bardsley, C.W, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames: With Special American Instances. Wiltshire: Heraldry Today, 1901. Print. (ISBN 0-900455-44-6)
Black, George F., The Surnames of Scotland Their Origin, Meaning and History. New York: New York Public Library, 1946. Print. (ISBN 0-87104-172-3)
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)