Plait History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England
Ireland

The ancient roots of the Plait family name are in the Anglo-Saxon culture. The name Plait comes from when the family lived by a small patch of land. Plait is a topographic surname, which was given to a person who resided near a physical feature such as a hill, stream, church, or type of tree. Habitation names form the other broad category of surnames that were derived from place-names. They were derived from pre-existing names for towns, villages, parishes, or farmsteads.

Early Origins of the Plait family

The surname Plait was first found in Lancashire where they held a family seat from early times and their first records appeared on the early census rolls taken by the early Kings of Britain to determine the rate of taxation of their subjects.

Early History of the Plait family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Plait research. Another 61 words (4 lines of text) covering the years 1552, 1608, 1632, 1638, 1640, 1669, 1678, 1694, 1696, 1705 and 1890 are included under the topic Early Plait History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Plait Spelling Variations

One relatively recent invention that did much to standardize English spelling was the printing press. However, before its invention even the most literate people recorded their names according to sound rather than spelling. The spelling variations under which the name Plait has appeared include Platt, Plat, Platte, Plait, Plate, Blatt and others.

Early Notables of the Plait family

Notables of the family at this time include Sir Hugh Plat or Platt (1552-1608), English writer on agriculture and inventor from Garlickhythe; and John Platt (1632-1705), an English immigrant to America from Ware, Hertfordshire to settle in Norwalk, Connecticut and rose to become a Member of the General Court of the Colony of Connecticut from Norwalk (1678-1694.) Gabriel Plattes (fl. 1638), was an English writer, said to have been of Dutch extraction, was one of the earliest advocates...
Another 76 words (5 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Plait Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Migration of the Plait family to Ireland

Some of the Plait family moved to Ireland, but this topic is not covered in this excerpt.
Another 57 words (4 lines of text) about their life in Ireland is included in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Plait migration to the United States +

At this time, the shores of the New World beckoned many English families that felt that the social climate in England was oppressive and lacked opportunity for change. Thousands left England at great expense in ships that were overcrowded and full of disease. A great portion of these settlers never survived the journey and even a greater number arrived sick, starving, and without a penny. The survivors, however, were often greeted with greater opportunity than they could have experienced back home. These English settlers made significant contributions to those colonies that would eventually become the United States and Canada. An examination of early immigration records and passenger ship lists revealed that people bearing the name Plait arrived in North America very early:

Plait Settlers in United States in the 17th Century

Peter Plait, who arrived in Virginia in 1664 1

Citations +

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)