Mandres

Recorded in several spellings including Mandre, Mandres and Mandrier (France) and Mandree, Mandrey, Mandry, Mandres, Maundrey and Maundree in England, this is a locational or sometimes occupational surname. It derives from the pre 10th century Ancient French 'mandres' and describes a stable, and as a surname specifically either a person who worked in a stable, or more likely one who lived at or by such a place, and was probably the owner. However there are a number of villages and hamlet so called in France specifically in the departments of Eure, Haute-Marne, Vosges, Seine et Oise, and Meuse, and the name could also have come from any or all of these. The name may have been introduced into England at the Norman Conquest of 1066, or in the centuries following, but if so we have not been able to positively identify any recordings. Those that do exist suggest that the name in England is more likely to be a Huguenot introduction, and to date from after the Mid 16th century when the persecution of the Protestants by the Roman Catholic reached epic proportions. The early recordings include such examples as Thomas Maundree, the son of another Thomas Maundree, who was christened at the famous church of St Dunstans in the East, Stepney, on June 2nd 1659, and slightly later Sarah Mandrey, who married Timothy Vickers ar St Katherines by the Tower (of London), on June 5th 1688. Other recordings taken at random, are those of Walter Maundry christened at St Olave's church, Southwark, London, on October 8th 1721, and William Mandry, born at Great Queen Street Hospital, London, on April 22nd 1826.