Tufts History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms
Tufts is a name of ancient Anglo-Saxon origin and comes from the family once having lived in the parish of Toft in the county of Norfolk. This place-name was originally derived from the Old Norman word Topt which was used to denote those who lived in the trees or forest. 1
Toft is also "a township in the parish of Knutsford, Cheshire and is the parent of the Cheshire Tofts." 2
The Domesday Book of 1086 has a variety of spellings for the various parishes: Toft, Cambridgeshire, Tofth; Toft Minks, Norfolk, Toft; and West Tofts, Norfolk, Toftes. 3
"The name of Tofts is now best represented in the district of Bishop's Stortford [Hertfordshire]. Tofts is a Norfolk parish, and De Toftes was a Norfolk surname in the 13th century (H. R.). Two parishes in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire are called Toft." 4
Early Origins of the Tufts family
The surname Tufts was first found in Northumberland where Elyas del Toft was listed in the Pipe Rolls of 1197. 5 The Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 proved the widespread use of the name at that time: Gundreda de Toftes, Norfolk; Eborard de Toft, Norfolk; Alan de Toft, Cambridgeshire; and Robert de Toft, Bedfordshire. 2
The Yorkshire Poll Tax Rolls of 1379 included an entry for Johannes Attn toftes et uxor and later, Hugh de Toft was recorded in East Cheshire in 1394. 2 The Subsidy Rolls for Suffolk included a listing of Gilbert de Toftes in 1327. John de Taft was recorded in the Assize Rolls for Cheshire in 1340. 5
By the 12th century they had moved north and acquired the old lands and barony which they called Tofts in the parish of Kirkton in Roxburghshire, Scotland. Ingram de Toftes, Robert de Toftes, and William de Toftes all rendered homage in 1296 to King Edward I of England on his brief conquest of Scotland. William of Toftys was Rector of the church at Great Cauerys (Cavers) in 1363. 6
Early History of the Tufts family
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Tufts research. Another 97 words (7 lines of text) covering the years 1499, 1580, 1605, 1620, 1637, 1640, 1641, 1669, 1675, 1680, 1689, 1698, 1708, 1725, 1750 and 1758 are included under the topic Early Tufts History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Tufts 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 Tufts family name include Taft, Tafte, Toft, Tofte, Tofts, Tuffs and others.
Early Notables of the Tufts family
Notables of this surname at this time include:
- Reverend John Tufts (1689-1750), was an early American music educator, he graduated from Harvard in 1708, best known for creating the note names fa, sol, la, mi
Tufts Ranking
In the United States, the name Tufts is the 10,404th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. 7
Tufts migration to the United States +
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 Tufts surname or a spelling variation of the name include:
Tufts Settlers in United States in the 17th Century
- Peter Tufts (1617-1700), English settler to Charlestown, Massachusetts from Wilby, Norfolk in 1637, he was involved in the Salem witch trials, ancestor of Charles Tufts 8
- Mr. John Tufts, British settler traveling aboard the ship "Dilligent" arriving in Boston, Massachusetts in 1638 9
- John Tufts, who arrived in Hingham, Massachusetts in 1638 8
Tufts migration to Canada +
Some of the first settlers of this family name were:
Tufts Settlers in Canada in the 18th Century
- Gasham Tufts, who landed in Nova Scotia in 1750
Tufts Settlers in Canada in the 19th Century
- Mr. Daniel Tufts, aged 32 who immigrated to Canada, arriving at the Grosse Isle Quarantine Station in Quebec aboard the ship "Jane Black" departing from the port of Limerick, Ireland but died on Grosse Isle in July 1847 10
- Mr. Michael Tufts, aged 6 who immigrated to Canada, arriving at the Grosse Isle Quarantine Station in Quebec aboard the ship "Jane Black" departing from the port of Limerick, Ireland but died on Grosse Isle in July 1847 10
Contemporary Notables of the name Tufts (post 1700) +
- Robert Malcolm "Bob" Tufts (1955-2019), American former Major League Baseball pitcher who played from 1981 through 1983
- James Walker Tufts (1835-1902), American founder of The Village of Pinehurst, North Carolina, home to the Pinehurst Resort
- Richard Tufts (1896-1980), American golf executive who added 40 holes to the Pinehurst Resort, North Carolina, President of the United States Golf Association in 1956-1957, inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1992
- James Hayden Tufts (1862-1942), American philosopher
- Daryn Tufts (b. 1973), American writer, director, producer, and actor
- Chester "Warren" Tufts (1925-1982), American comic strip and comic book artist-writer, best known for his Western adventure strip Casey Ruggles
- Bowen Charlton "Sonny" Tufts III (1911-1970), American film actor
- Charles Tufts (1781-1876), American businessman and philanthropist who donated the land for Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts
- John Quincy Adams Tufts (1840-1902), American Republican politician, Member of the Iowa House of Representatives in 1870, 1872 and 1874 11
- William Terence "Terry" Tufts (b. 1954), Canadian singer-songwriter
Historic Events for the Tufts family +
Grover Shoe factory
- Miss Marian Tufts, American employee of the Grover Shoe factory in Brockton, Massachusetts on 20th March 1905 when the boiler exploded and collapsed the wooden building; she died 12
- Master Richard Albert Tufts (1908-1917), Canadian resident from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada who died in the Halifax Explosion (1917) 13
- Master Harold Hastings Tufts (1912-1917), Canadian resident from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada who died in the Halifax Explosion (1917) 13
- Mrs. Ada Maud Tufts (1882-1917), Canadian resident from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada who died in the Halifax Explosion (1917) 13
- Master Clyde Robert Tufts (1914-1917), Canadian resident from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada who died in the Halifax Explosion (1917) 13
- Master George V. Tufts (1916-1917), Canadian resident from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada who survived the Halifax Explosion (1917) but later died due to injuries 13
Citations +
- Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
- Bardsley, C.W, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames: With Special American Instances. Wiltshire: Heraldry Today, 1901. Print. (ISBN 0-900455-44-6)
- Williams, Dr Ann. And G.H. Martin, Eds., Domesday Book A Complete Translation. London: Penguin, 1992. Print. (ISBN 0-141-00523-8)
- Guppy, Henry Brougham, Homes of Family Names in Great Britain. 1890. Print.
- Reaney, P.H and R.M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames. London: Routledge, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-415-05737-X)
- 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)
- "What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
- 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)
- Pilgrim Ship's of 1600's. Retrieved October 6th 2021 from https://www.packrat-pro.com/ships/shiplist.htm
- Charbonneau, André, and Doris Drolet-Dubé. A Register of Deceased Persons at Sea and on Grosse Île in 1847. The Minister of Canadian Heritage, 1997. ISBN: 0-660-198/1-1997E (p. 58)
- The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2013, June 26) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html
- California Digital Newspaper from 21st March 1905 (retrieved on 5th August 2021.) Retrieved from https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SFC19050321.2.19&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1
- Halifax Explosion Book of Remembrance | Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. (Retrieved 2014, June 23) . Retrieved from https://maritimemuseum.novascotia.ca/what-see-do/halifax-explosion/halifax-explosion-book-remembrance