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HANDLEY Family History

This long-established surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from any of the various places so called in the counties of Cheshire, Derbyshire, Dorsetshire or Northamptonshire. The placenames are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as, respectively, "Hanlei, Henlege, Hanlege" and "Henleie", and all derive from the Olde English pre 7th Century "heah", meaning "high", and "leah", a wood or clearing. Locational names were given to the lord of the manor, to local inhabitants, and especially to those who left their original homes and went to live or work in another village or town. The surname was first recorded in the latter part of the 12th Century (see below), and other early recordings include: Laurence de Hanlaye (Yorkshire, 1219); Robert de Handlegh (Gloucestershire, 1314); and John Hanley (Nottinghamshire, 1426)...

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