Bringley History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England
Ireland

The name Bringley is of Anglo-Saxon origin and came from when a family lived in or near the settlement of Brinkley in the county of Cambridgeshire.

Early Origins of the Bringley family

The surname Bringley was first found in Cambridgeshire at Brinkley, a small village about 15 miles from Cambridge in the union of Newmarket, hundred of Radfield. 1 The village dates back to the late 12th century when it was first listed as Brinkelai and literally meant "woodland clearing of a man called Brynca," from the Old English personal name + "leah." 2

Early History of the Bringley family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Bringley research. Another 35 words (2 lines of text) covering the years 1546, 1550, 1583 and 1585 are included under the topic Early Bringley History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Bringley 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 Bringley family name include Brinkley, Bringley, Bringle, Bringlow, Bringley, Brinklow, Brinkley and many more.

Early Notables of the Bringley family

Notables of this surname at this time include: John Brinkley, Bishop of Cloyne; and Stephen Brinkley (b. 1550-1585?), an English printer, covertly producing Roman Catholic literature under Elizabeth I of England. He was tortured at the Tower of London but was discharged in June 1583. Henry Brinkelow (d. 1546), was an English satirist, the...
Another 54 words (4 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Bringley Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the Bringley family to Ireland

Some of the Bringley family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.
Another 75 words (5 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Bringley migration to the United States +

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 Bringley surname or a spelling variation of the name include :

Bringley Settlers in United States in the 17th Century

William Bringley, who landed in Pennsylvania in 1682 3

The Bringley Motto +

The motto was originally a war cry or slogan. Mottoes first began to be shown with arms in the 14th and 15th centuries, but were not in general use until the 17th century. Thus the oldest coats of arms generally do not include a motto. Mottoes seldom form part of the grant of arms: Under most heraldic authorities, a motto is an optional component of the coat of arms, and can be added to or changed at will; many families have chosen not to display a motto.

Motto: Mutabimur
Motto Translation: Be changed

Citations +

Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England. Institute of Historical Research, 1848, Print.
Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
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)