EnglandThe name Molslay is of Anglo-Saxon origin and came from when a family lived in one of the places called Moseley in Staffordshire and Worcestershire (both in the West Midlands region), in Moseley in West Dean in Gloucestershire, or in Mowsley in Leicestershire. There is also a Mossley in Greater Manchester.
The surname Molslay was first found in Moseley, now a suburb of Birmingham in the West Midlands or in Moseley in Herefordshire and Worcestershire or in Mowsley, a small village in Lancashire. All four locations are listed in the Domesday Book. [1]
The West Midlands village was originally called Moleshi and literally meant "woodland clearing of a man called Moll," from the Old English personal name + leah. The latter three locations were listed as Museleie and in these cases, the place names literally meant "woodland clearing infested with mice." [2]
Mossely, a small town and civil parish in Greater Manchester was first listed as Moselegh in 1319 and literally meant "woodland clearing by a swamp or bog." [2]
The first record of the family was found in London where Robert de Molseleye was listed in 1325. A few years later in Staffordshire, John de Mollesley was found in the Subsidy Rolls for 1332, and later gain, Thomas Mollesseley was listed in Cambridgeshire in 1340. [3]
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Molslay research. Another 113 words (8 lines of text) covering the years 1200, 1527, 1612, 1599, 1609, 1610, 1661, 1647, 1639, 1665, 1660, 1661, 1720, 1674, 1751, 1705, 1757 and 1779 are included under the topic Early Molslay History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
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 Molslay family name include Moseley, Mosely, Mosley, Mossley and others.
Notables of the family at this time include Sir Nicholas Moseley; Humphrey Moseley (died 1661), a prominent London publisher and bookseller, best known for the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647; Sir Edward Mosley, 1st Baronet of Rolleston; and Sir Edward Mosley, 2nd Baronet (1639-1665), an English politician, Sheriff of Lancashire in 1660, Member of Parliament...
Another 57 words (4 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Molslay Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, the Canadas, 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 Molslay surname or a spelling variation of the name include : Anne Moseley, who settled in Virginia in 1652; along with Elizabeth, Francis, Joseph, Richard, Samuel and William; George Mosely settled in Virginia in 1635.
