Witherby

Recorded in a number of spellings including Weatherby, Wetherby, Witherby, Weatherbee, Whitherby and Wytherby, this is an English surname.It is locational from the town of Wetherby in the county of West Yorkshire, a town which stands almost equidistant between London and Edinburgh on what has always been known as the Great North Road until quite recently. For many centuries Wetherby formed the focal point on this road, being a major centre for the stage coaches and later the railways. It is a good example of a locational surname. These were names which were usually given to people after they had left their original homes to move somewhere else. Spelling over the centuries being at best erratic, and local accents very thick, not surprisingl;y lead to the develoopment of variant spellings, some far removed from the original form. The name owes something to the Danish-Vikings, who until the coming of the Norman-French after the Conquest of 1066, held sway in Yorkshire, with York being their capital. The place name of Wetherby derives from the Olde English word 'wether' meaning store cattle, and the Scandanavian '-bi' meaning a farm, the town being recorded as Wedrebi in the famous Domesday Book of 1086. The first known recording of the surname is that of Robertus de Wethirby in the Poll Tax rolls of 1379.