Brindley - Name

This unusual surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name deriving from the place called Brindley in Cheshire, near Acton. The placename is recorded as "Birnedelegh, Burndelegh", in the 1288 County Court, City Court and Eyre Rolls of Chester, and as "Brundeley" in the county charters of 1347, and is so called from the Olde English pre 7th Century term "berned", burnt, used here in the sense of a piece of ground cleared by fire, with "leah", wood, clearing, glade. Locational surnames were acquired by the lord of the manor and by local landowners, and especially by those former inhabitants of a place who had moved to another area, usually in search of work, and who were thereafter best identified by the name of their birthplace. Church Registers include the following recordings of the surname: the christening of Thomas Brindley at St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster, London, on August 3rd 1552, and the marriage of Galfridus Brindley and Anna Bate at Colwich, Staffordshire, on December 4th 1598. An early Coat of Arms granted to the family depicts a silver griffin, segreant, on a red shield. The Crest is a wivern holding in the beak a hand proper. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard Brindley, which was dated June 26th 1540, a christening witness at Nantwich, Cheshire, during the reign of King Henry V111, known as "Bluff King Hal", 1509 - 1547. 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.