Delancey History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

Early Origins of the Delancey family

The surname Delancey was first found in Bedfordshire (Old English: Bedanfordscir), located in Southeast-central England, formerly part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, where they held a family seat as Lords of the Manor. After the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, having prevailed over King Harold, granted most of Britain to his many victorious Barons. It was not uncommon to find a Baron, or a Bishop, with 60 or more Lordships scattered throughout the country. These he gave to his sons, nephews and other junior lines of his family and they became known as under-tenants. They adopted the Norman system of surnames which identified the under-tenant with his holdings so as to distinguish him from the senior stem of the family. After many rebellious wars between his Barons, Duke William, commissioned a census of all England to determine in 1086, settling once and for all, who held which land. He called the census the Domesday Book, 1 indicating that those holders registered would hold the land until the end of time. Hence, conjecturally, the surname is descended from the tenant of the lands of Bletsoe who was recorded in the Domesday Book census of 1086.

Early History of the Delancey family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Delancey research. Another 137 words (10 lines of text) covering the years 1386, 1462, 1510, 1531, 1600, 1663, 1717 and 1741 are included under the topic Early Delancey History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Delancey Spelling Variations

Anglo-Norman names tend to be marked by an enormous number of spelling variations. This is largely due to the fact that Old and Middle English lacked any spelling rules when Norman French was introduced in the 11th century. The languages of the English courts at that time were French and Latin. These various languages mixed quite freely in the evolving social milieu. The final element of this mix is that medieval scribes spelled words according to their sounds rather than any definite rules, so a name was often spelled in as many different ways as the number of documents it appeared in. The name was spelled Lannoy, Lanney, Lannier and others.

Early Notables of the Delancey family

More information is included under the topic Early Delancey Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Delancey Ranking

In the United States, the name Delancey is the 9,714^th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. 2

Delancey migration to the United States +

Because of the political and religious discontent in England, families began to migrate abroad in enormous numbers. Faced with persecution and starvation at home, the open frontiers and generally less oppressive social environment of the New World seemed tantalizing indeed to many English people. The trip was difficult, and not all made it unscathed, but many of those who did get to Canada and the United States made important contributions to the young nations in which they settled. Some of the first North American settlers with Delancey name or one of its variants:

Delancey Settlers in United States in the 17th Century

Etienne Delancey, who landed in New York in 1686 3

Delancey Settlers in United States in the 18th Century

Stephen DeLancey, who landed in New York in 1740-1741 3

Contemporary Notables of the name Delancey (post 1700) +

Colonel Sir William Howe DeLancey KCB (1778-1815), American officer in the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars, he died of his wounds at the Battle of Waterloo 4
Oliver De Lancey the Elder (1749-1822), American general, elder son of General Oliver de Lancey, American loyalist during the War of Independence and nephew of James de Lancey, a celebrated New York lawyer, who was Chief-Justice of that colony from 1733 to 1760 4
Oliver De Lancey the Younger (1803-1837), American Christinist officer, the only son of General Oliver De Lancey, Barrack-Master-General from 1792 to 1804, born in Guernsey in 1803 4
James De Lancey (1746-1804), American-born, Canadian politician in Nova Scotia
Scott DeLancey, American linguist at the University of Oregon
William Pinkney "Bill" DeLancey (1911-1946), American Major League Baseball catcher from Greensboro, North Carolina
James DeLancey (1703-1760), American politician, Chief Justice, 28th and 30th Colonial Governor of the Province of New York
Captain James DeLancey (1732-1800), American soldier during the American Revolution
Ralph DeLancey Izard (1785-1822), United States Navy officer, eponym of the destroyer USS Izard (DD-589)
William DeLancey Rinehardt, American Democratic Party politician, Postmaster at York, Pennsylvania, 1934-53 5

Citations +

Williams, Dr Ann. And G.H. Martin, Eds., Domesday Book A Complete Translation. London: Penguin, 1992. Print. (ISBN 0-141-00523-8)
"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
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)
Wikisource contributors. "Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900." Wikisource . Wikisource , 4 Jun. 2018. Web. 30 June 2020
The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2016, January 8) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html