De La Salle

This interesting name may derive from a number of possible origins. Firstly it is most likely of French topographical origin, describing someone who lived in a salt marsh, from the Old French word "sale", salted or salty. It may also be an Anglo-French topographical name for someone employed in a manor house, from the Old French "salle", hall, also in the Old English as "sael" and Middle English as "sale". Finally the name may be of English locational origin from "Sale", in Cheshire, recorded "La Salle" in 1285 in the Court Rolls, from the Old English "salh", "sealh", meaning sallow, a type of willow tree. It may also be topographical from this source also describing a "dweller by the Sallow trees". The name first appears in records in the mid 13th Century, (see below). The Subsidy Rolls of Sussex mention one Nicholas atte (at) Sale in 1296, while in 1327, one Edmund del Sale was recorded in the Subsidy Rolls of Suffolk. Hugh de la Sale was recorded in Somerset in 1277. Katheren Delasale married one Thomas Hacket on July 19th 1540 at St. Mildred Poultry, London, while Ezechiel, son of Henry and Anne De La Salle, French Huguenots, was christened on December 18th 1713, at West St., Westminster, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert de la Sale, which was dated 1243, Assize Court Rolls of Somerset, during the reign of King Henry 111, "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. 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.