|
Harley in Great Britain
Translations from Old English possibly giving rise to the name include "hare's farm" and "farm by the rocks." So the name probably arose from place descriptions.
One source of the name is Harley, Shropshire. At the time of the Domesday book it was Harlege.
Peerage accounts offer varying opinions on the origin. There is documentation that Harley was a surname in England before the Norman conquest. In the leger book at Pershore Abbey was an account of a nobleman named Harley who commanded an army under King Ethelred and helped defeat the Danes in 1013. Other sources for the peerage accounts believe the House of Harlai in France was descended from the English family. Also mentioned is a John De Harley who possessed Harley Castle. 1 He apparently went on a crusade in 1098. 2
Juhel de Haralea is in the Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire (1166). 3
The Harley family of Herefordshire has some documentation. Edward Harley (1624 - 1700) was a Member of Parliament.
Compared to Great Britain at large, people named Harley in 1881 were most densely settled in the Falkirk and Kirkaldy areas of Scotland. 4 The reason for this is unknown.
_________________________________________________
Harley in Ireland
The name (O' Harley) shows up chiefly in counties of the northern part of Ireland, particularly Donegal. Ó hEarghaile was likely the native form. This project does not know the details of the plantation settler surnames in the northern part of Ireland, but would caution about the possibility that Harleys from Scotland and England could have lived adjacent to native Irish Harleys. Harleys in Griffith's Valuation are largely in Templecrone, a parish on the west coast, and in Inver.
The name is also difficult to distinguish from Hurley in handwritten records. An a after the initial H that is not properly closed can be read as u. This should be considered when looking at records elsewhere in Ireland - particularly in County Cork, where there was the greatest concentration of Hurleys.
_________________________________________________
- 1. Collins, Arthur. Peerage of England: Containing a Genealogical and Historical Account of All the Peers of England. Vol III. p. 272-.
- 2. GateHouse Gazetteer compiles data on the medieval castles of England.
- 3. Surname Database online. surnamedb.com.
- 4. University College London. Public Profiler. gbnames.publicprofiler.org Unfortunately the website has been disabled. The project will look for a different source.
| Hurley, Harley, Herilihy at FTDNA |
DNA Portal | Records | Project Pedigrees |
| See ABOUT for website information. | |||
| Copyright © 2018-2022 hurley.dnagen.org. All rights reserved. | |||