Byres History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
Scotland
Ireland
England

Byres is a name whose roots are found in the clans of the Boernician people of ancient Scotland. The Byres family lived in or near the place named Byers in Scotland. The place-name, Byers, derives from the Old English word byre, which means cattle shed. 1 Thus, Byers is of two derivations, topographical and habitational.

Alternatively, the name could have been Norman in origin originating a "the chateau of Biars in the canton of Isigni, La Manche, Normandy. " 2 3

Early Origins of the Byres family

The surname Byres was first found in East Lothian, where they held a family seat from ancient times. One of the first records of the name related to the place name as in David de Lindsay the younger, also called David Lindsay of the Byres (died 1279), a 13th century Scottish knight and crusader. John de Pyres appears as a monk of Neubotle in 1309. Thome de Byris owned a tenement in Edinburgh in 1392, and in 1534 Thomas Byrs was admitted burgess of Aberdeen. 4 Today, Byres Road is a famous street located in Hillhead, Glasgow.

In England, the first record of the family was found in Devon where Elias de la Byare was listed in the Hundredorum Rolls of 1275. A few years later, Willelmus del Byre was found in the Subsidy Rolls for Yorkshire in 1301 and later again, John Buyres was listed in the Subsidy Rolls for Somerset in 1327. 5

Early History of the Byres family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Byres research. Another 141 words (10 lines of text) covering the years 1309, 1392, 1534, 1593, 1639, 1653, 1681, 1690, 1694, 1733, 1750, 1790, 1817 and 1890 are included under the topic Early Byres History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Byres Spelling Variations

Scribes in the Middle Ages simply spelled according to sound. The result is an enormous number of spelling variations among names that evolved in that era. Byres has been spelled Byers, Byres, Byer, Buyers, Byris and others.

Early Notables of the Byres family

Notable amongst the family at this time was

James Byers or Byres (1733-1817), Scottish architect and archaeologist, died at his seat Tonley, in the parish of Tough, Aberdeenshire, on 3 Sept. 1817, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. During a...

Migration of the Byres family to Ireland

Some of the Byres family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.
Another 57 words (4 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Byres migration to the United States +

Most of the Boernician-Scottish families who came to North America settled on the eastern seaboard of what would become the United States and Canada. Families who wanted a new order stayed south in the War of Independence, while those who were still loyal to the crown went north to Canada as United Empire Loyalists. In the 20th century, the ancestors of these families have gone on to rediscover their heritage through Clan societies and other patriotic Scottish organizations. Research into the origins of individual families in North America has revealed records of the immigration of a number of people bearing the name Byres or a variant listed above:

Byres Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

Robert Byres, who landed in New York, NY in 1812 6

Contemporary Notables of the name Byres (post 1700) +

James Byres of Tonley FRSE FSA (1733-1817), Scottish architect, antiquary and dealer in Old Master paintings and antiquities, member of a family of Scottish Jacobite sympathizers who settled in Rome in 1758
Terence J. Byres, British peasant studies scholar and a professor emeritus of Political Economy at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Citations +

Smith, Eldson Coles, New Dictionary of American Family Names New York: Harper & Row, 1956. Print
The Norman People and Their Existing Descendants in the British Dominions and the United States Of America. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 1975. Print. (ISBN 0-8063-0636-X)
Lower, Mark Anthony, Patronymica Britannica, A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russel Smith, 1860. Print.
Black, George F., The Surnames of Scotland Their Origin, Meaning and History. New York: New York Public Library, 1946. Print. (ISBN 0-87104-172-3)
Reaney, P.H and R.M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames. London: Routledge, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-415-05737-X)
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)