Ethnicity British | ||
Current region England, United States of America, Canada Earlier spellings Yoakley, Yockley, Yackslee, Yexley and Yokley Place of origin Huntingtonshire, England | ||
The Yaxley family was first founded in Suffolk 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 lands. He called the census the Domesday Book, 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 of Yaxley, held by Hubert, a Norman noble from William Malet his over lord, who was recorded in the Domesday Book census of 1086.
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Coat of Arms
The Armorial Bearings for the Surname Yaxley were researched by an Heraldic expert and coat of arms shown to the right was found to be the oldest of the armorial bearings associated with Yaxley. It was granted in Boston, Lincolnshire in the Middle Ages. It appears in Burke's General Armory of 1884. There are several entries for the name Yaxley; these are:
Yaxley (Boston, co. Lincoln). Erm. a chev. sa. betw. three mullets pierced gu. Crest — A demi unicorn ar. collared gobonee sa. and or. (sic)
Yaxley (Yaxley and Bawthorp, co. Norfolk). Same Arms, Crest — A bull's head erased sa. armed or. (sic)
Yaxley (co. Norfolk). Ar. a chev. cotised sa. betw. three mullets of six points gu. pierced or. (sic)
Yaxley (Y.'xxley, co. Suffolk). Erm. a chev. sa. betw. three mullets pierced gu. Crest — An Indian goat ar. pellcttee, attired or. (sic)
Yaxley. Erm. a chev. betw. three mullets sa. Crest — An heraldic antelope sa. bezante, attired, maned, and tufted or. (sic)
Yaxley (Sir Robert Yaxley, knighted by Robert, Earl of Essex, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1599). Erm. a chev. sa. betw. three mullets pierced gu. (sic)
Yaxley. Ar. a chev. sa. betw. three mullets gu. (sic)
The Family
Recorded in several forms including Yaxley, and the dialectal derivations Yoakley, Yockley, and Yokley, Yaxley is an English surname. It is locational and derives either from the two villages called Yaxley in the English counties of Cambridgeshire (formerly Huntingdonshire) and Suffolk or from some now "lost" medieval village of a similar origin. Over three thousand British Isles surnames are known to originate from lost villages, so whilst unusual, such an event is not by any means unique. The Cambridgeshire village is recorded in the Saxon Codex Diplomaticus of 963AD as "Geaceslea", and later as "Iacheslei" in the Domesday Book of 1086, whilst Yaxley in Suffolk appears as "Jacheslea" in the Domesday Book. Both places share the same meaning and derivation, which is "Cuckoo wood". Locational surnames were generally "from" names; the easiest way to identify a stranger, being to call him or sometimes her, by the name of the place from whence they came, even though that may just be the next village. Spelling being at best erratic and local accents very thick, lead to the development of "sounds like" names. In this case the surname lists of the diocese of Greater London suggest that the derivatives from Yaxley occurred during the 17th century. Early examples of the recordings include the marriage of Symon Yaxley and Elizabeth Croply at Soham, Cambridgeshire, on May 10th 1594, Margaret Yoakley who married James Hird at St Katherines by the Tower (of London), on December 29th 1656, and Thomas Yockley, who married Sarah Pocock at St James church, Dukes Place, city of London, on May 9th 1689. The first recorded spelling of the family name is possibly that of Elizabeth Yaxley. This was dated 1543, when she married Thomas Sherman, at Yaxley, in Suffolk, during the reign of King Henry VIII of England, 1509 - 1547.
The Great Migration
There are three known Yaxleys to have settled in America in the Great Migration of the 18th Century. They were Stephen Yaxley, William Yaxley and a second William Yaxley who settled in 1758, 1760-65 and 1765 respectively.