Where
does our name originate from
Filby
Village
If
one accepts the Doomesday Book, the village of FILBY was spelled FILEBEY or
PHILEBY but the first county map in England - that of Norfolk County -
spells it as FILBYE and it is properly located. The name is of Danish
extraction and with the invasion of Norsemen around 800 AD it may have
been the site of a wintering place for the invaders
There
are 25 towns in the East and West Flegg Hundreds, of which 14 end in 'BY'
which means 'place of'. The site of the village was moreover easy to
defend, it was accessible by water and there was ample food from fish and
game from what is known as FILBY BROAD.
The
Name "de Filby"
It
is to be remembered that a name such as "John de Filby" means
John of Filby or John from Filby, and it is the SECOND of
these alternatives which is the real meaning i.e. someone living in a
place 'other' than the village of FILBY - but who has come from there.
This probably explains why the name Filby is found all over England and
the world, except in the village of Filby itself, as few return having
spread their wings.
About
1200 AD surnames had not been invented, but were beginning to be both
desirable and necessary. Where they lived, what trade they had, and hair
colour were all used as 'descriptive' surnames, i.e. John the wood, John
the carpenter, John the fair. From about 1390 surnames had developed even
further, by dropping the 'de' or 'of' or 'the' thus becoming John Filby.
Earliest
Parish Records of FILBYs in Norfolk
FILBIES
MANOR was some 30 miles south/west of the present village of FILBY, near
the small town of Diss, and this is probably the reason why the earliest
Filby record of baptism and marriage to be found in Norfolk were at the nearby
Parish of Dickleburgh, it reads:-
"On
October 22nd 1544 a Nicholas ffylbye took unto himself Elizabeth Gobbert
as a bride and sired four sons - Nicholas on May 1st 1546; William on
February 2nd 1548; Thomas on August 21st 1550 and Stephen on November 18th
1552." Such may have been the beginnings of many Filbys.
N.B.
the small 'ff' was the way in which the capital F was written in those
days
Assorted
spellings of the name "Filby"
Until
the 20th Century most of the population were illiterate and in all cases of
recording birth, marriage and death the writing of the name fell upon the
Scribe or Cleric of the day, and even they only interpreted what they
thought they heard. It was often found that many of the same family had
different spellings for their surnames, they may even have thought it
desirable to use 'Philby' or 'Fileby' to distinguish themselves from a
brother who preferred 'Filby'. Or simply a local accent or speech
impediment.
For
instance; Two close cousins Robert Hayward Filby and Mary Anne Filby eloped
to London and Married on March 1, 1849. This was such a disgrace in those
days that they were forced to add an E to Robert's surname. From that date
onwards their eleven children and all their descendant's surnames was
recorded as Filbey.