Halley

This interesting and unusual name of Scots and English origin is locational from places so called 'lost' village in Derbyshire, the latter suggested by the wealth of early recordings of the name in that county. The derivation is probably named with the Olde English pre 7th Century 'hall', hale, with '(ge)hoeg', an enclosure. The phenomena of the 'lost' village was a result of enforced land clearance, at the height of the wool industry in the 14th Century when whole village were cleared to make way for sheep pastures. It is estimated that there are between seven and ten thousand such villages that have disappeared from British maps. Two early records of namebearers in Derbyshire are of one Anna Halley, who was christened on the 27th December 1577 at Beeley. Elizabeth Halley married John Caleshaw on 13th August 1567 also at Beeley. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Georgii Halley, witness, which was dated 27th January 1538, Beeley Derbyshire, during the reign of King Henry VIII, 'Good 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.