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| Origins Available: |
| | England |
The surname Elesfield was first found in Oxfordshire where they held a family seat as Lords of the Manor. After the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, having prevailed over King Harold, granted most of Britain to his many victorious Barons. It was not uncommon to find a Baron, or a Bishop, with 60 or more Lordships scattered throughout the country. These he gave to his sons, nephews and other junior lines of his family and they became known as under-tenants. They adopted the Norman system of surnames which identified the under-tenant with his holdings so as to distinguish him from the senior stem of the family. After many rebellious wars between his Barons, Duke William, commissioned a census of all England to determine in 1086, settling once and for all, who held which land. He called the census the Domesday Book, 1 indicating that those holders registered would hold the land until the end of time. Hence, conjecturally, the surname is descended from the tenant of the lands of Elsfield, held by Thurstan from Robert d'Oilly, Oxford's great Norman Baron who was recorded in the Domesday Book census of 1086. Thurstan may have been Robert's vassal.
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Elesfield research. Another 65 words (5 lines of text) covering the year 1634 is included under the topic Early Elesfield History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Anglo-Norman names are characterized by a multitude of spelling variations. When the Normans became the ruling people of England in the 11th century, they introduced a new language into a society where the main languages of Old and later Middle English had no definite spelling rules. These languages were more often spoken than written, so they blended freely with one another. Contributing to this mixing of tongues was the fact that medieval scribes spelled words according to sound, ensuring that a person's name would appear differently in nearly every document in which it was recorded. The name has been spelled Elsfield, Ellisfield, Ellesfield, Ellsfield, Elesfield, Helsfield, Ellesfield, Elesfield, Hellsfield, Hellesfield, Helesfield, Helisfield and many more.
More information is included under the topic Early Elesfield Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
For many English families, the political and religious disarray that plagued their homeland made the frontiers of the New World an attractive prospect. Thousands migrated, aboard cramped disease-ridden ships. They arrived sick, poor, and hungry, but were welcomed in many cases with far greater opportunity than at home in England. Many of these hardy settlers went on to make important contributions to the emerging nations in which they landed. Among early immigrants bearing the name Elesfield or a variant listed above were: settlers were recorded from the mid 17th century in the great migration from Europe. Migrants settled on the eastern seaboard from Newfoundland, to Boston, to Virginia, to Florida, and to the islands..