Show ContentsQuarterman History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The name Quarterman is from the ancient Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain. The name was given to a person who was a person who was mail-fisted or perhaps the nickname 'four hands.' [1] The surname Quarterman originally derived from the armor that soldiers or knights donned for protection in battle. Occupational names that were derived from the common trades of the medieval era transcended European cultural and linguistic boundaries.

Early Origins of the Quarterman family

The surname Quarterman was first found in Oxfordshire where the first records of the name were Clare Quatremayns and William Quatremeyns who were both listed in the Hundredorum Rolls of 1273. A few years later, Thomas Quatremains was listed in the Writs of Parliament in 1313. [2] Digging further into the 'four hands' reference we found: "French for 'four hands' which form the charge of the family shield." [1] Thame in Oxfordshire was home to one branch of the family.

"About the time of Edward IV., an hospital for destitute persons was endowed with lands by Richard Quatremain, a member of a family of high repute. The north transept [of the church] is the burying place of the Dormer family, and the south transept the sepulchral chapel of the Quatremains; both contain handsome monuments." [3]

The Quartermaine family is a fictional family from the ABC soap opera, General Hospital and Al(l)an Quatermain is the protagonist of H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines. The character was recently reintroduced with the popular series League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (LXG) and in the eponymous film released in 2003, Sean Connery played the character Alan Quatermain.

Quartermaine's Terms is a play by Simon Gray which won The Cheltenham Prize in 1982.

Early History of the Quarterman family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Quarterman research. Another 68 words (5 lines of text) covering the years 1618, 1662 and 1667 are included under the topic Early Quarterman History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Quarterman 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 Quarterman family name include Quartermain, Quartermaines, Quarterman, Quartermaynes, Quatermain, Quatermaines, Quaterman, Quatermay and many more.

Early Notables of the Quarterman family

Another 40 words (3 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Quarterman Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Quarterman Ranking

In the United States, the name Quarterman is the 12,745th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. [4]


United States Quarterman migration to the United States +

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. Investigation of the origins of family names on the North American continent has revealed that early immigrants bearing the name Quarterman or a variant listed above:

Quarterman Settlers in United States in the 17th Century
  • John Quarterman, who landed in Maryland in 1669 [5]
Quarterman Settlers in United States in the 18th Century
  • John Quarterman, on record in Virginia in 1742
Quarterman Settlers in United States in the 19th Century
  • Thomas H Quarterman, who arrived in Mississippi in 1841 [5]

New Zealand Quarterman migration to New Zealand +

Emigration to New Zealand followed in the footsteps of the European explorers, such as Captain Cook (1769-70): first came sealers, whalers, missionaries, and traders. By 1838, the British New Zealand Company had begun buying land from the Maori tribes, and selling it to settlers, and, after the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, many British families set out on the arduous six month journey from Britain to Aotearoa to start a new life. Early immigrants include:

Quarterman Settlers in New Zealand in the 19th Century
  • Leonard Quarterman, who arrived in Wellington, New Zealand aboard the ship "Edwin Fox" in 1875

Contemporary Notables of the name Quarterman (post 1700) +

  • Lloyd A. Quarterman (1918-1982), American chemist who worked on the Manhattan Project
  • Kurt Quarterman (b. 1983), American UFL football guard for the Sacramento Mountain Lions
  • Saundra Quarterman (b. 1968), American actress, best known for her role as Geneva Lee on the sitcom Hangin' with Mr. Cooper
  • Elsie Quarterman (1910-2014), American plant ecologist, Professor Emerita at Vanderbilt University
  • Joe Quarterman, nicknamed Sir Joe Quarterman, an American funk and soul singer
  • John S. Quarterman (b. 1954), American author
  • John Holmes Quarterman, American politician, Member of Georgia State House of Representatives from Ware County, 1926-28 [6]
  • Simon Quarterman, British actor, best known for playing Father Ben Rawlings in the horror film The Devil Inside
  • Fraser James Quarterman (b. 1983), New Zealand cricketer who plays first-class cricket for Wellington


  1. Lower, Mark Anthony, Patronymica Britannica, A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russel Smith, 1860. Print.
  2. Bardsley, C.W, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames: With Special American Instances. Wiltshire: Heraldry Today, 1901. Print. (ISBN 0-900455-44-6)
  3. Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England. Institute of Historical Research, 1848, Print.
  4. "What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
  5. 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)
  6. The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2015, November 13) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html


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