Quatermaine History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

The ancient name of Quatermaine finds its origins with the ancient Anglo-Saxon culture of Britain. It comes from a name for a person who was mail-fisted or perhaps the nickname 'four hands.' 1 The surname Quatermaine 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 Quatermaine family

The surname Quatermaine 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 Quatermaine family

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

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

Early Notables of the Quatermaine family

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

Migration of the Quatermaine family

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 Quatermaine surname or a spelling variation of the name include : John Quarterman, on record in Virginia in 1742; and Joseph Quartman settled in Philadelphia in 1824.

Citations +

Lower, Mark Anthony, Patronymica Britannica, A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russel Smith, 1860. Print.
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.