Keilway History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

The name Keilway is of Anglo-Saxon origin and came from when a family lived in a small settlement in either Devon or Cornwall. Thus, Keilway is a habitation surname derived from the place, named Callway or Calway. 1

Alternatively, the name Keilway is a habitational name originally derived from the place name Caillouet-Orgeville in Eure, France. This place name comes from the Old Northern French word "cail(ou)," meaning "a pebble." 2 3

Early Origins of the Keilway family

The surname Keilway was first found in Gloucestershire where Philip de Chailewai was listed in the Pipe Rolls of 1165. A few years later, Thomas de Kaillewey was found in Warwickshire in 1242 and in the same year William Callewey was in Devon. 3

Kellaways, also known as Tytherton Kellaways, is a village and former ecclesiastical parish in Langley Burrell and ceremonial county of Wiltshire, England.

The Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 list Walter Calewey as holding lands in Buckinghamshire at that time. 1 The source, Testa de Nevill, sive Liber Feodorum, temp. Henry III-Edward I. list William Callewey in Devon and Cassadra Cayllewey, Wiltshire, 20 Edward I (during the twentieth year of the reign of King Edward I.) 4

Early History of the Keilway family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Keilway research. Another 78 words (6 lines of text) covering the years 1185, 1497, 1543, 1547, 1549, 1552, 1557, 1558, 1559, 1564, 1580 and 1581 are included under the topic Early Keilway History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Keilway 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 Keilway family name include Callaway, Kelloway, Kellaway, Calloway and others.

Early Notables of the Keilway family

Outstanding amongst the family at this time was

Robert Keilway, Kellway or Kaylway (1497-1581), legal reporter, "was in 1543 the recipient of a grant of the wardship and marriage of Eliz...
The only person of his name mentioned is his ‘cousin’ Francis, son and heir of Sir William Keilway or Kelloway, knt...

Migration of the Keilway 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 Keilway surname or a spelling variation of the name include : Edmund Callaway who settled in Virginia in 1639; and his descendants would later become recorded as a distinguished family of the U.S.A. the history of which can be found in Burke's. Later W.M. Callaway arrived in San Francisco Cal. in 1850.

Citations +

Bardsley, C.W, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames: With Special American Instances. Wiltshire: Heraldry Today, 1901. Print. (ISBN 0-900455-44-6)
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)
Reaney, P.H and R.M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames. London: Routledge, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-415-05737-X)
Testa de Nevill or "Liber Feodorum" or "Book of Fees," thought to have been written by Ralph de Nevill, for King John (1199–1216)