The surname Fairwyn was first found in Warwickshire. The Saxon influence of English history diminished after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The language of the courts was French for the next three centuries and the Norman ambience prevailed. But Saxon surnames survived and the family name was first referenced in the year 1212 by Robert Hanlee who held lands in that area at that time. Farway, Devon is another possible origin of the surname as Farway dates back to the Domesday Book where it was listed as Farewai and probably meant "place at the road way" from the Old English words faer + weg. 1 At that time, Farway was held by the Bishop of Coutances and had enough land for four ploughs. It had 5 acres of meadows and 40 acres of pasture land. 2
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Early History of the Fairwyn family
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Fairwyn research. Another 75 words (5 lines of text) covering the years 1455 and 1487 are included under the topic Early Fairwyn History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
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Fairwyn 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 Fairwyn family name include Fairway, Fairwin, Fairxwood, Fairwyn and others.
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Early Notables of the Fairwyn family
Distinguished members of the family include
the Fairwyn family of Wiltshire
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Migration of the Fairwyn 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 Fairwyn surname or a spelling variation of the name include: 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..
England
