Early Origins of the Vetts family
The surname Vetts was first found in
Cambridgeshire where they held a
family seat as Lords of the Manor. After the Battle of Hastings in 1066, William, Duke of
Normandy, having prevailed over King Harold, granted most of Britain to his many victorious Barons. It was not uncommon to find a
Baron, or a Bishop, with 60 or more Lordships scattered throughout the country. These he gave to his sons, nephews and other junior lines of his family and they became known as under-tenants. They adopted the Norman system of surnames which identified the under-tenant with his holdings so as to distinguish him from the senior stem of the family. After many rebellious wars between his Barons, Duke William, commissioned a census of all
England to determine in 1086, settling once and for all, who held which land. He called the census the
Domesday Book,
[1]CITATION[CLOSE]
Williams, Dr Ann. And G.H. Martin, Eds., Domesday Book A Complete Translation. London: Penguin, 1992. Print. (ISBN 0-141-00523-8) indicating that those holders registered would hold the land until the end of time. Hence, conjecturally, the surname is descended from the
tenant of the lands and who was recorded in the
Domesday Book census of 1086. The family is believed to descended from an unknown noble settler Yvette from Seine Inf of Yvtot who followed in the wake of the victors at the Battle of Hastings and was granted lands in that shire.
Early History of the Vetts family
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Vetts research.
Another 153 words (11 lines of text) covering the years 1160, 1270, 1173, 1300 and 1329 are included under the topic Early Vetts History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Vetts Spelling Variations
It is only in the last few
hundred years that the English language has been standardized. For that reason, Anglo-Norman surnames like Vetts are characterized by many
spelling variations. Scribes and monks in the Middle Ages spelled names they sounded, so it is common to find several variations that refer to a single person. As the English language changed and incorporated elements of other European languages such as Norman French and Latin, even literate people regularly changed the spelling of their names. The variations of the name Vetts include Yvett, Ivett, Ivatt, Ivet, Ivat and others.
Early Notables of the Vetts family (pre 1700)
More information is included under the topic Early Vetts Notables in all our
PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Migration of the Vetts family to the New World and Oceana
Faced with the chaos present in
England at that time, many English families looked towards the open frontiers of the New World with its opportunities to escape oppression and starvation. People migrated to North America, as well as
Australia and
Ireland in droves, paying exorbitant rates for passages in cramped, unsafe ships. Many of the settlers did not make the long passage alive, but those who did see the shores of North America were welcomed with great opportunity. Many of the families that came from
England went on to make essential contributions to the emerging nations of Canada and the United States. Some of the first immigrants to cross the Atlantic and come to North America carried the name Vetts, or a variant listed above:
Vetts Settlers in United States in the 19th Century
- Gerrit j e Vetts, aged 47, who landed in New York, NY in 1847 [2]CITATION[CLOSE]
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)