Baxlay History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

Baxlay is a name of ancient Anglo-Saxon origin and comes from the family once having lived in Sussex and Buckinghamshire. 1 The Baxlay surname is a habitational name derived from any of various places named Beckley, such as those in Kent, Oxfordshire, and Sussex. The place name Beckley comes from the Old English name becca with the Old English word leah, meaning a clearing in the forest. 2

Early Origins of the Baxlay family

The surname Baxlay was first found in Suffolk where Ralph de Beckele was listed in the Curia Regis Rolls for 1211. Later, Richard de Beckele was found in the Subsidy Rolls for Sussex in 1327 and later again, John Beklay was listed as a Freeman of York in 1446. 3

The Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 had two listings for the family: Thomas de Beckelegh, Oxfordshire; and Henry de Beckcle, Oxfordshire. 4

Early History of the Baxlay family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Baxlay research. Another 115 words (8 lines of text) covering the years 1291, 1438, 1622, 1661, 1689 and 1753 are included under the topic Early Baxlay History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Baxlay 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 Baxlay family name include Beckley, Beckly, Bistley, Bickley and others.

Early Notables of the Baxlay family

Distinguished members of the family include William Beckley (died 1438), an English Carmelite, born in Kent, probably in the neighbourhood of Sandwich, where he appears to have entered the order of the Carmelites in early life. While still young he proceeded to Cambridge, where the Carmelites had a house since the year 1291. Here he seems to have taken his doctor's degree in divinity, and to have established a considerable reputation as a theologian. Bale...
Another 74 words (5 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Baxlay Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the Baxlay family

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 Baxlay surname or a spelling variation of the name include: Richard Beckley who arrived in Boston Massachusetts in 1637; Sarah Bickley settled in Maryland in 1740; Richard Bickley settled in Virginia in 1624.

Citations +

Lower, Mark Anthony, Patronymica Britannica, A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russel Smith, 1860. Print.
Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
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)