Abberley

Recorded as Abberley and sometimes in the past Aberley and Aberleigh, this is an English surname. It is locational from a village called Abberley in the county of Worcestershire, in the West Midland region. Abberley has at least one distinction. It is the first village recorded in the Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names, although there seems to be some doubt as to the precise meaning. Recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 in the spelling of "Edboldelege", the translation would seem to be the farm (leah) of Edbeald, the later being a rare Anglo-Saxon or Olde English baptismal name of the pre 7th century. The village name takes on a more modern appearance after about the year 1260, when it is recorded in the Pipe Rolls of Worcestershire as Abbedslegh. In fact this later spelling may mean something quite different, and could suggest that this spelling is a simple clerical error, or it could be that the village now formed part of a monasterial holding, at a time when the estates of monasteries were growing rapidly everywhere. The surname is recorded in Worcester area, but the earliest recordings are to be found far away in London. Examples of recordings include: Dorothy Abberley, who married Solomon Easton, at the church of St Lawrence Jewry in the city of London on June 3rd 1560, and Clement Abberley, christened at Madresfield, Worcester, on November 30th 1626.