Lepley History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
France
England

Normandy is the region of ancient France from which the name Lepley was derived. It comes from when the family lived in the region of Plessis.

Early Origins of the Lepley family

The surname Lepley was first found in Normandy (French: Normandie), the former Duchy of Normandy, where this distinguished family held a family seat at Plessis.

However, we must look to ancient England to find the first record of the family. For is there that we found John de Plessis or Plessetis (died 1263), Earl of Warwick. He was of Norman origin, and was probably a son of the Hugh de Plessis who occurs as one of the royal knights from 1222 to 1227. He was possibly a grandson of the John de Plesseto who witnessed a charter of John in 1204. 1

Early History of the Lepley family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Lepley research. Another 125 words (9 lines of text) covering the years 1203, 1585, 1621, 1634 and 1642 are included under the topic Early Lepley History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Lepley Spelling Variations

Most surnames have experienced slight spelling changes. A son may not chose to spell his name the same way that his father did. Many were errors, many deliberate. During the early development of the French language, a person usually gave his version, phonetically, to a scribe, a priest, or a recorder. Prefixes or suffixes varied. They were optional as they passed through the centuries, or were adopted by different branches to signify either a political or religious adherence. Hence, there a many spelling variations of the name Lepley, including Plessis, Plessieies, Plessier, Plessix, Plessy, Plessys, Le Plessis, Le Plessieies, Le Plessier, Le Plessix, Le Plessy, Le Plessys, Du Plessier, Du Plessix, Du Plessy, Du Plessys, Du Plessix, Duplaix, Deplaix and many more.

Early Notables of the Lepley family

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

Lepley Ranking

In the United States, the name Lepley is the 14,008^th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. 2 However, in France, the name Lepley is ranked the 9,384^th most popular surname with an estimated 500 - 1,000 people with that name. 3

Lepley migration to the United States +

France finally gave land incentives for 2,000 migrants during the 1700s. Early marriage was encouraged in New France, and youths of 18 took fourteen-year-old girls for their wives. The fur trade was developed and attracted migrants, both noble and commoner from France. 15,000 explorers left Montreal in the late 17th and 18th centuries, leaving French names scattered across the continent. The search for the Northwest passage continued. Migration from France to New France or Quebec, as it was now more popularly called, continued until 1759. By 1675, there were 7000 French in Quebec. By the same year the Acadian presence in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island had reached 500. In the treaty of Utrecht, the Acadians were ceded by France to Britain in 1713. In 1755, 10,000 French Acadians refused to take an oath of allegiance to England and were deported. They found refuge in Louisiana. Meanwhile, in Quebec, the French race flourished, founding in Lower Canada, one of the two great solitudes which became Canada. Many of this distinguished family name Lepley were prominent in social, cultural, religious and political affairs in France and New France. Amongst the settlers in North America with this distinguished name Lepley were

Lepley Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

Julius Lepley, who landed in Somerset County, Pennsylvania in 1853 4

Contemporary Notables of the name Lepley (post 1700) +

Herman G. Lepley, American politician, Candidate for U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania, 1920 (23rd District), 1922 (24th District) 5

Citations +

Smith, George (ed), Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1885-1900. Print
"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
http://www.journaldesfemmes.com/nom-de-famille/nom/
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 3) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html