Bosley and Fletcher

by · 7/14/2011

Or is that Boselega and Fulcher?

Since I went to my family reunion this past weekend, I have been thinking (again) about the origins of the surnames of my dad and mom, Bosley and Fletcher respectively. In times past, I have been interested in the family tree, and have even manage to fill t he family Bible with names of grandparents I never got to know and their parents.

This is what I found on the Surname Database:

Bosley

This unusual name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving from the place in Cheshire near Congleton, called ‘Bosley’. The place name is first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ‘Boselega’, and in 1278 as ‘Boseleg’. The name means ‘Bosa’s clearing or glade’, deriving from the Old English pre 7th Century personal name ‘Bosa’, adopted from the Germanic given name ‘Boso’, derived from an element meaning ‘audacious, daring’, with ‘leah’, clearing, glade, thin wood. Locational surnames were usually given to the lord of the manor, and especially to those former inhabitants of a place who moved to another area, and were best identified by the name of their birthplace. The christening of Betty Bosley was recorded in Maltby, Yorkshire, on October 14th 1748. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Roger Bosley (marriage to Margareta Lysan), which was dated December 1st 1554, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London, during the reign of Queen Mary 1, ‘Bloody Mary’, 1553-1558.

Fletcher
This famous northern family name is believed to have derived from the Germanic pre 7th Century personal compound name “Fulcher”. The introduction into England was probably by the Normans, and the name translates as “people’s army” from “folk”, plus “heri”, army. The development from Fulcher to Fletcher is both dialectal and academic, and may have arisen as a result of recordings being undertaken by a lay person of limited ability, rather than the original clerks or scribes. The name as Fletcher is normally associated with arrow making: however, this is not always an acceptable explanation, the Fletcher being responsible for the equipping of the bowman, a medieval supply officer. Representative recordings of the family name include John Fletcher, who married Elizabeth Allen at Tettenhall, County Stafford, on December 30th 1606, and Simon Fletcher, baptised at Old Swinford, County Worcester, on September 10th 1659. The Coat of Arms of this branch of Fletcher is given as sable, a cross patonce between four escallops or, on a chief gules, a lion passant and a crescent for difference, both of the second. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert le Flecher, which was dated 1203, in the “Assize Court Rolls of Staffordshire”, during the reign of King John, known as “Lackland”, 1199 – 1216.

 

The surname database adds:

Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to “develop” often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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