Offley History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

Early Origins of the Offley family

The surname Offley was first found in Hertfordshire at Offley, a civil parish that includes the main village Great Offley. Little Offley is a small hamlet lying 1½ miles north-west of Great Offley. Collectively, this ancient Saxon settlement dates back to 944-6 when it was first listed as Offanlege. 1 By the Domesday Book of 1086, the villages were known as Offelei. 2 The place name literally means "woodland clearing of a man called Offa," from the Old English personal name + "leah." 1 Another source claims "this place received its name from King Offa (died 796), who is said to have died here." 3

Early History of the Offley family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Offley research. Another 89 words (6 lines of text) covering the years 1547, 1556, 1582, 1649, 1666, 1708, 1716, 1742 and 1829 are included under the topic Early Offley History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Offley Spelling Variations

The English language only became standardized in the last few centuries; therefore,spelling variations are common among early Anglo-Saxon names. As the form of the English language changed, even the spelling of literate people's names evolved. Offley has been recorded under many different variations, including Offley, Offlie, Offly, Offaly, Offally, Offalie and others.

Early Notables of the Offley family

Distinguished members of the family include

Robert Offley who inherited Norton Hall, an English country house situated on Norton Church Road in the suburb of Norton in Sheffield in 1666...
The family held the estates for many generations including Stephen Offley who was High Sheriff of Derbyshire in 1716...
Thomas Offley (d. 1582) a wool and cloth merchant, bought Madeley Old Manor was a medieval manor house at Madeley, Staffordshire from Sir Francis Poyntz in 1547...
Five generations of Offleys lived at the manor including three John Offleys who served as High Sheriff of Staffordshire...
Thomas Offley's great-great-grandson John Offley (b. 1649) married Anne Crewe, heiress of Crewe Hall, Cheshire...
Their son, John Offley, changed his name by a 1708 Act of Parliament to John Offley Crewe when he inherited his mother's estate...

Offley migration to the United States +

For many English families, the political and religious disarray that shrouded England made the far away New World an attractive prospect. On cramped disease-ridden ships, thousands migrated to those British colonies that would eventually become Canada and the United States. Those hardy settlers that survived the journey often went on to make important contributions to the emerging nations in which they landed. Analysis of immigration records indicates that some of the first North American immigrants bore the name Offley or a variant listed above:

Offley Settlers in United States in the 17th Century

Daniel and David Offley who settled in Boston Massachusetts in 1635
David Offley, who landed in New England in 1638 4
Nicho Offley, who arrived in Virginia in 1642 4
Michael Offley, who landed in Maryland in 1658 4
Barbara Offley, who arrived in Maryland in 1673 4
... (More are available in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.)

Offley Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

John H. Offley, who settled in Baltimore Maryland in 1823

Contemporary Notables of the name Offley (post 1700) +

Archibald Nelson "Archie" Offley (d. 1945), American Navy Commander who married Mary Agnes Yerkes, the American Impressionist painter
Miss Katherine Heaton Offley, American who commissioned at New York on 12 May 1863 the second USS Ticonderoga, a 2526-ton Lackawanna-class screw sloop-of-war
Richard J. Offley, American politician, U.S. Consul in Mayagüez, 1838-42 5
E. S. Offley, American politician, U.S. Consul in Smyrna, 1848-62 5
David W. Offley (b. 1846), American politician, U.S. Consul in Smyrna, 1838-46 5
David Offley (b. 1838), American politician, U.S. Consul in Smyrna, 1832-38 5
David Offley, American politician, Postmaster at Brooke Court House, Virginia, 1803-05 5
Sarah Offley, English wife from Shropshire of Thomas Wakeman, Mayor of Worcester, married in 1788; the Offley surname was carried through the Wakeman baronets of Perdiswell Hall from the 2nd Baronet through the 6th
Sir Offley David Wakeman (1922-1991), 5th Baronet of Perdiswell Hall
Sir Offley Wakeman (1887-1975), 4th Baronet of Perdiswell Hall, member of the London County Council from 1922 to 1925, High Sheriff of Shropshire in 1934 and Chairman of the Shropshire County Council from 1943 to 1963

Citations +

Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
Williams, Dr Ann. And G.H. Martin, Eds., Domesday Book A Complete Translation. London: Penguin, 1992. Print. (ISBN 0-141-00523-8)
Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England. Institute of Historical Research, 1848, Print.
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)
The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2015, November 4) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html