First found in Devon 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, indicating that those holders registered would hold the land until the end of time. Hence, conjecturally, the surname is descended from the tenant of lands in Devon held by Vitalis of Berny, who was recorded in the Domesday Book census of 1086. Abbot Vitalis was Abbot of Westminster in 1076. He had been at the confirmation of Duke William as King of England at Lillebonne in Normandy in 1061.

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• Ancient origin of the name (usually pre-1100)
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• Early movement of the family name during the Middle Ages
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Some of the first settlers of this family name or some of its variants were: the name represented in many forms and recorded from the mid 17th century in the great migration from Europe. Migrants settled in the eastern seaboard from Newfoundland, to Maine, to Virginia, the Carolinas, and to the islands..

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