Majury

This unusual surname, recorded in Church Registers of Scotland and Ulster under the variant spellings Majorie, Majurey, Majourie, Mcjury, McGorey and Marjory, has two distinct possible sources, each with its own history and derivation. Firstly, Majury may be a variant form of Macgorry, itself an Anglicization of the Old Scots Gaelic "MacGoraidh", son of Goraidh. Goraidh, earlier "Gofraidh", is a borrowing from the Old Norse "Guthfrithr", composed of the elements "guth, goth", god, and "frith(r)", peace. Early examples of the surname from this source include: John Makgorre of Knokdwff (1540), and MacGoffrie "Chief of his name", noted in a Fiant Record of County Fermanagh, dated 1591. Recordings from Ulster Church Registers include the christening of Alexander McGorry at Clones, County Monaghan, on January 29th 1684; the marriage of John McJury to Mary Hamilton in Newtown Ards, County Down, on April 22nd 1816, and the christening of Robert Majury at Kilmore Parish, County Down, on February 4th 1834. It is also possible that Majury is a dialectal variant of Marjorie, a surname deriving from the female personal name Margery or Marjorie, derived ultimately from a Persian word meaning "Pearl". On January 16th 1871, the birth of one Andrew Bruce Marjory was recorded in Glasgow, Lanarkshire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Duncan M'Goffry, a knight of John de Ergadia, which was dated 1315, in "Medieval Records of Argyll", Scotland, during the reign of King Robert 1 (The Bruce) of Scotland, 1306 - 1329. 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.