Summerhays History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The surname Summerhays was first found in Derbyshire at Somersall, a parish four miles from Uttoxeter. Now known as Somersall-Herbert, the parish dates back to the Domesday Book of 1086 when it was recorded as Summersale. 1

This place name literally means "nook of land of a man called Summor," from this Old English personal name + "halh." The manorial affix from the Fitzherbert family was made in the 13th century. 2

One of the first records of the family was Jacobus de Sumereshal who was listed in 1200 in the Curia Regis Rolls for Herefordshire. Over one hundred years later, according to the Assize Rolls of Staffordshire, William de Somersale held lands there at that time. 3

Later in Yorkshire, Somerscales was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax Rolls of 1379, as was his son, John Somerscales, Jr. 4

Somersall Hall is a small country house near Brampton, Chesterfield, Derbyshire. Somersal Herbert Hall is a privately owned timber-framed 16th-century country house at Somersal-Herbert, near Ashbourne, Derbyshire, in England. This house was originally built by Thomas Fitzherbert, second son of Sir William Fitzherbert of Norbury c. 13th century. The present house was rebuilt by John Fitzherbert on the site of an earlier manor house in 1564.