Manchester

This interesting surname is of English locational origin from the city thus called in North West England, formerly part of Lancashire. The placename was recorded as "Mameceaster" in the 923 Anglo-Saxon Chronicles and as "Mamecestre" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and derives from "Mamucio", an ancient British name containing the element "mamma" breast and meaning "breast-shaped hill" plus the old English pre 7th Century "ceaster" a Roman fort, from the Latin "castra" legionary camp. We do not often find many representatives of our large cities as the tendency was to come to them, not to leave them. The surname is first recorded in the early half of the 14th Century, (see below). One, John Manchester, appears in the 1427, Close Rolls. On January 26th 1642, William Manchester married Elizabeth Breathers, at St. Dunstan's, Stepney, London, and George, son of William and Elizabeth Manchester, was christened on November 22nd 1643, at the same place. A coat of arms granted to the Manchester family consists of a red shield with three mitres labelled gold on a red engrailed pale (vertical band of colour) and three silver bendlets enhanced on a red canton (top left hand corner of the shield). The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John de Manchestre, which was dated 1325, Freemen of Yorkshire, during the reign of King Edward 11, "Edward of Caernafon", 1307 - 1327. 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.