Briarly History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

Etymology of Briarly

What does the name Briarly mean?

Briarly is a name whose history is connected to the ancient Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain. The name is derived from when the Briarly family once lived in Brierley, a township in the parish of Felkirk, West Riding, Yorkshire. 1 Brierley-Hill is a a district chapelry, in the parish of King's Swinford, union of Stourbridge, N. division of the hundred of Seisdon in Staffordshire. 2

Early Origins of the Briarly family

The surname Briarly was first found in the West Riding of Yorkshire where the first record of the family was John de Brerelay who was listed as a Freemen of York, 13 Richard II (in the thirteenth year of King Richard II's reign.) 1

Early History of the Briarly family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Briarly research. Another 75 words (5 lines of text) covering the years 1586, 1626, 1637, 1654 and 1782 are included under the topic Early Briarly History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Briarly 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 Briarly family name include Brierley, Brierly, Briarly, Briarley, Bryerly and others.

Early Notables of the Briarly family

Roger Brereley or Brierley (1586-1637), English divine and poet, born on 4 Aug. 1586, at Marland, then a hamlet in the parish of Rochdale, where Thomas Brereley, his father, and Roger, his grandfather, were farmers. "The name is spelled in many ways, but it seems best to adhere to the form which constantly recurs in the Rochdale baptismal register, as this undoubtedly represents the right pronunciation. From his father's brother Richard the Brearleys of...
Another 74 words (5 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Briarly Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Briarly 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 Briarly surname or a spelling variation of the name include:

Briarly Settlers in United States in the 17th Century

Thomas Briarly, who landed in Maryland in 1671 3

Sources +

Bardsley, C.W, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames: With Special American Instances. Wiltshire: Heraldry Today, 1901. Print. (ISBN 0-900455-44-6)
Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England. Institute of Historical Research, 1848, Print.
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)