Guise

Recorded in several forms including de Guise, Guise, Guislin, Guiso, and Guisler, this is a French regional surname, which as Guice, Guise and Gyse, is also well recorded in England. It originates from the district of Guise, in the department of Aisne, in Northern France. Certainly the surname recording in France as Bernard de Guise of Guise, in the year 1159, is one of the first surname recordings anywhere in the world. The surname is also recorded in England in the year 1262, when Nicholas de Gyse inherited Elmore, a manor and estate in Gloucestershire. It is also claimed that this Nicholas was a descendant of a knight who accompanied William, Duke of Normandy, in his conquest of England in 1066. Certainly one of the very first rolls of chivalry (The St. George and Howard roll of circa 1250 in the reign of King Henry 111), gives Sir Auncell de Guise (or Gyse) as holding a coat of arms with the blazon of 'Lozengy, gules and vair, a canton Or'. Other examples of the surname recordings taken from authentic and surviving church registers of France and England include: Pierre Guiset at Conde-sur-L'escaut, Nord, on July 8th 1620, Hohn Guice at the church of St Giles Cripplegate, in the city of London, on April 15th 1677, and Charles Guise, at Blamont, France, on November 8th 1718.