Weathersby History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

Weathersby is a name of ancient Norman origin. It arrived in England with the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Weathersby family lived at Wetherby in West Yorkshire, a market town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds. "The Saxon name of this town, whence the present is obviously deduced, was Wederbi, a term intended to designate its situation on a bend of the river Wharfe." 1 Today in the United States, there are two towns listed: Weatherby, Missouri; and Weatherby Lake, Missouri

Early Origins of the Weathersby family

The surname Weathersby was first found in West Yorkshire where one of the first records was of Ivo de Werreby in 1214; and Richard de Wetherby in 1302. 2 Later the Yorkshire Poll Tax Rolls of 1379 listed Robertas de Wethirby as living there at that time. 3

Conjecturally the Wetherby family are descended from Ralph of Intwood, who held the lands and village of Intwood from Eudo, Steward to William the Conqueror. Intwood consisted of a church, a mill, nine horses, and thirty sheep, as recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086. 4

Wetherby is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Wedrebi, thought to derive from wether- or ram-farm or else meaning "settlement on the bend of a river". 5 Local folklore has it that when heavy snow storms hit the county, Wetherby does not get as much because the "Weather Goes By."

Early History of the Weathersby family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Weathersby research. Another 77 words (6 lines of text) covering the year 1461 is included under the topic Early Weathersby History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Weathersby 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 Weathersby 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 Weathersby include Wetherby, Weatherby, Wetherbie, Wetherbee, Witherby and many more.

Early Notables of the Weathersby family

More information is included under the topic Early Weathersby Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Weathersby Ranking

In the United States, the name Weathersby is the 5,468^th most popular surname with an estimated 4,974 people with that name. 6

Migration of the Weathersby family

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 Weathersby, or a variant listed above: John Witherby (or Wetherby) who settled in Sudbury, Massachusetts in 1630; John Wetherbee settled in New York in 1820; Bartholomew Wethersbie settled in Virginia in 1616.

Contemporary Notables of the name Weathersby (post 1700) +

Davis Weathersby, American head college football coach for the Mississippi Valley State University Delta Devils (1970-1977)
Dennis Weathersby (b. 1980), American former NFL cornerback for the Cincinnati Bengals
Carlton "Carl" Weathersby (b. 1953), American W.C. Handy Award nominated electric blues vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter
William Henry Weathersby (1914-2001), American politician, U.S. Ambassador to Sudan, 1965-67 7
Dawn Weathersby, American Democratic Party politician, Delegate to Democratic National Convention from California, 2004 7

Citations +

Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of England. Institute of Historical Research, 1848, Print.
Reaney, P.H and R.M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames. London: Routledge, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-415-05737-X)
Bardsley, C.W, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames: With Special American Instances. Wiltshire: Heraldry Today, 1901. Print. (ISBN 0-900455-44-6)
Williams, Dr Ann. And G.H. Martin, Eds., Domesday Book A Complete Translation. London: Penguin, 1992. Print. (ISBN 0-141-00523-8)
Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2015, October 8) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html