The ancient Anglo-Saxon culture once found in Britain is the soil from which the many generations of the Brakespear family have grown. The name Brakespear was given to a member of the family who was a person who is victor in a tournament or battle.
Loading...
Early Origins of the Brakespear family
The surname Brakespear was first found in Hertfordshire at Breakspear College in Abbots Langley, Three Rivers, Hertfordshire which is now a Grade II Listed Building and thought to have originally been built c. 1770 as a rebuilding of an earlier house. The present name commemorates Nicholas Breakspear (c. 1100-1159), born in Abbots Langley, who, as Pope Adrian IV, became the only English Pope in 1154. (British Listed Buildings)
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) in his novel Manalive mentions the Warden of Brakespeare (Brikespeare) College, Cambridge University, but this is a fictional reference.
Loading...
Early History of the Brakespear family
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Brakespear research. Another 60 words (4 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Brakespear History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Loading...
Brakespear 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 Brakespear family name include Brakespear, Breakspear, Brakespeare, Breakspeare and others.
Loading...
Early Notables of the Brakespear family
Another 50 words (4 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Brakespear Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Loading...
Migration of the Brakespear family
For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, the Canadas, 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 Brakespear surname or a spelling variation of the name include : Jane Breakspeare who settled in New England in 1773.
England
