The roots of the
Anglo-Saxon name Beares come from when the family resided in
Devon, where they took their name from one of the many places named
Bear, Beare, Beara, etc., found in that county. The surname is likely to be derived from the Old English word
bearu, which means
grove. Several early instances of that name are in the form
le beare, or
the bear, from the Old English
bera.Early Origins of the Beares family
The surname Beares was first found in
Devon where there are two places on the banks of Tamar called Beer-Alston and Beer-Ferris. In
Dorset, place names include Beer- Hacket and Beer-Regis.
[1]CITATION[CLOSE]
Lowe, Mark Anthony, Patronymica Britannica, A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russel Smith, 1860. Print. The earliest reference of the name was in
Devon where it was listed as Bera in the
Domesday Book [2]CITATION[CLOSE]
Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
Early History of the Beares family
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Beares research.
Another 239 words (17 lines of text) covering the years 1207, 1684, 1354 and 1355 are included under the topic Early Beares History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Beares Spelling Variations
The English language only became standardized in the last few centuries; therefore,
spelling variations are common among early
Anglo-Saxon names. As the form of the English language changed, even the spelling of literate people's names evolved. Beares has been recorded under many different variations, including Beare, Bear, Beer, Bere, Beares, Bears, Beers and many more.
Early Notables of the Beares family (pre 1700)
Another 17 words (1 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Beares Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Migration of the Beares family to the New World and Oceana
For many English families, the political and religious disarray that shrouded
England made the far away New World an attractive prospect. On cramped disease-ridden ships, thousands migrated to those British colonies that would eventually become Canada and the United States. Those hardy settlers that survived the journey often went on to make important contributions to the emerging nations in which they landed. Analysis of immigration records indicates that some of the first North American immigrants bore the name Beares or a variant listed above:
Beares Settlers in United States in the 17th Century
- Richard Beares, who arrived in Watertown, Massachusetts in 1637 [3]CITATION[CLOSE]
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)