Oxlade Family History
"Dwellers in the Valley of the Oaks"
Introduction
Oxlade One Name Study
A One Name Study is the collection of information about all people of a particular surname and it's variants.
This study is dedicated to
All members of the Oxlade Clan, past present and future but in particular to two of it's senior members, Audrey Elaine Oxlade of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and Peter Henry Oxlade of Croydon, Surrey, England as well as Elizabeth Ann Bruce the wife of Lawrence John Daly of Beaudesert, Queensland, Australia.
I am grateful to all who have assisted me in my Oxlade One Name Study which forms the basis of this site to Audrey Elaine Oxlade (Sydney,N.S.W.) who generously shared and laboriously hand-copied records of the family of my forebear John Oxlade of Kingston Blount; to Peter Henry Oxlade (Croydon,Surrey) f or the transcription of the " Narrative of John Oxlade" contained in the Place Manuscripts at the British Library and Geoffrey Arthur Oxlade(Scarborough,Qld) who found the original reference and passed it on, as well as Robert Allan Oxlade (Ontario,Canada) who sponsored an appraisal of the work which led to the transcription.Also to Elizabeth Ann Bruce(wife of Lawrence John Daly,Beaudesert,Qld) but for whose encouragement and kindness I might have abandoned my study at its beginnning. Her work on the Byers family demonstrated that being denied access to family letters and photographs need not be an insurmountable barrier .To Jean Stevens for being a "wailing wall" when needed and May Lanchbury for her unfailing kindness and cheerfulness.
Among the many librarians and archivists who have aided my researches, I would like to thank in particular Liz Whittingham, Assistant Archivist (Bucks Record Office) and Mark Priddey, Senior Archivist, (Oxfordshire Archives). Also Stephanie Jenkins, (Headington,Oxford) for her detailed knowledge of Oxon and it's records and her willingness to share it, Christopher Hicks, Bookbinder(Oxford) for information regarding the Oxlades and the printing industry. I am indebted to Eve McLaughlin (author of the McLaughlin Guides for family historians and Secretary Bucks Genealogical Society) for her broad knowledge of family history research and Buckinghamshire generally as well as her helpful comments on Oxlade historical events.
So many people have contributed to my database, many of them generous genealogists, who spent precious time copying out information, which in the past, was extremely hard to obtain in Australia. The help of subscribers to the Bucks and Oxfordshire Lists was invaluable in the beginning and provided me with a large part of the information that I hold. The Internet has done so much to make information available these days and what is not freely shared is now often available at reasonable cost . The friendship and generosity of fellow researchers continues to be of invaluable assistance to me.
Finally, to all those who entrusted their family details to an unknown researcher in far away Australia, often despite not really understanding why it was important to her, thank-you for your trust.
Preface
It was never my intention to write about the Oxlades or anyone else for that matter. In fact I had assured another member of the Clan who had expressed an interest in writing a book, that all I was interested in was gaining information about our particular line before it was lost with the passing of older family members.
My interest in family history began as a small child. Both my mother and father's families knew quite a lot about where we came from and often spoke of their families background. As small children our favourite treat when we stayed with our grandmothers, was to all pile into bed together and listen to stories of times past. I must say though that it was more "Tell us about the Bush, Nana" rather than stories of our European history.
However ,I started to become concerned when I learned, firstly of the loss of the original Family Devotional dated 7 March 1657 which belonged to the descendants of John Oxlade (abt.1687 - 1774 ) Cordwainer of Kingston Blount, Oxon and later, that no one knew anything of the whereabouts of a letter from Cromwell to a Captain Oxlade, thanking him for his part in the English Civil War. This letter was also held by the Australian descendants of the above mentioned John Oxlade.
In one of those amazing unsort discoveries that occur in Family History Research, Sharon Oxlade wife of Stewart Gray came across some Civil War grafitti in Winchester Cathedral, among which was the signature of John Oxlade, possibly the Barber Chirurgeon who I believe is the Captain Oxlade in Cromwells letter.
After my husband and I retired to the Sunshine Coast in 1992 I began to research in earnest and joined several Family History Societies. In an effort to discover the parents of John Oxlade (abt.1687 - 1774 ) I started to contact anyone I could find with the surname Oxlade. While on a visit to the United Kingdom I copied about fifty names and addresses from the British Telecom telephone microfiche and wrote to them all. I received two replies,one from a descendant of John Oxlade of Kingston Blount and another from Walter James Oxlade from Malvern in Worcestershire. Jim as he is known, kindly sent me a copy of "The Burk's Peerage World Book of Oxlades" which gave me more names and addresses of Oxlades worldwide.There followed an even greater flurry of letter writing with similar disappointing response.
In the meantime I discovered Family History Societies and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Libraries, both of which held information and records going right back into history. I laboriously typed and re-typed information for those people who did respond to my letters and later when I purchased a computer, by Email. However, when lowered call costs made telephoning the Oxlades in England an option, the work load rose alarmingly. I decided to get organized and typed up a number of pieces on the various Oxlade lines and sent these along with the Family Trees as Email attachments to those of the Oxlades who had computers or via surface mail for those who hadn't. I met with the most amazing kindness and generosity from Oxlades who had no connection to my direct Line but who none the less, told me all they knew about their Oxlade families.
As the research continued it became apparent that the Oxlades in England knew even less of their history than those in Australia. No-one else was willing to record this information so it was entered into the original data-base and thus the One Name Study began. Today it records nearly 40,000 Oxlades and connected families, few of whom descend from John of Kingston Blount, though undoubtedly most, if not all Oxlades are connected somewhere.
Undertaking the Oxlade One Name Study has lead to many interesting Oxlade contacts and some lasting friendships. I have had the pleasure of putting in contact members of the Clan who had previously been unaware of each others existence. Several people have been reunited with family members whom they had not seen since childhood and there has been a very touching reunion between a nephew in his seventies and his uncle, now in his nineties, neither of whom had realized that the other was still living and residing not far away. Though the uncle's memory is failing he is delighted to answer questions about the family and can recall old times and places with clarity. Their renewed acquaintance is something they both treasure and that alone has made the Oxlade One Name Study more than worthwhile.
The Oxlade One Name Study has grown to such an extent that it takes up as much time as a full time job (with overtime) hence the need to become even more organized. The result was to have been a book but life and family keep getting in the way, so the alternative has been this Web Site, which, while it skims the surface, hopefully will answer until some-one, some day, does write the book.
Susan Rogers, Australia . 15 Jan 2006
History
The Oxlades are believed to be of Anglo - Saxon origin and the name to mean "Dwellers in the Valley of the Oaks".Certainly from at least the 13th century onward they have been centered around Buckinghamshire, a Saxon agricultural area. The Saxons, unlike the Romans, did not plan their towns which were usually centres of agricultural trade, often growing up in places where the water was easily forded. Their market towns all had one thing in common, a wide street or square in which business was transacted. Some surving examples of Roman planned settlements, where the Oxlades are still to be found, are Amersham, Aylesbury, High Wycombe and Thame.
While the term Anglo- Saxon gives the idea of single race or group of people there was a great difference of speech between the Angles and the Saxons, especially in the pronunciation of vowels. The short clipped "u" of the Englishman is Saxon and tended in the past to be heard only in Saxon districts while the long drawn out cup pronounced "coop" was Anglian and heard only in those districts. The ancient British mode of speech which survived all the various invasions, including the Angles and Saxons, is to be found only in Wales and the Welsh border counties.
Today modern education and communication systems have lead to a blurring of many of these regional speech distinctions, though in the country quite clearly defined racial features of colouring and build still exist. In Berkshire the small dark men who are noticable among those who work with sheep horses and cattle are descendants of the Iberians, a small dark people with long faces and aquiline noses who were pastoralists and predated the Celts.
In the Chiltern Hills there are still true celtic types to be found, descendants of the people who hid in the thick woods from the Norse and Saxon invasions. They too were a short dark people, of very independant spirit, and were left alone by the Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Danes. The three hundreds of Chiltern (Stoke, Burnham and Desborough) were so wild and unruly that they had a special Steward to control them up until the eighteenth century. The isolation made for a strong independent character with a strong opposition to established views. A description which would still fit many Oxlades today!
Hugh Unton To Sir William Stonor
Thought to be 26 October 1479
Right worshipfull Maister, I recomaunde me unto you. And Syr, the case is so that yong Wagge nowe apon Saterday last passet hase comyn and take possession in a corner of a feld of a trew wedow and bedewoman of yours, Robert Oxlades moder, concernyng the title of all hir place: the which woman hase ben in pesibill possession thes iij score yeres and more, as her sone Robert can more pleynly enfourme your maistership. And Syr, the lond is entaylet as fayre as eny can be unto the heires males, and hase been thes C. yeres. Syr, I beseche you be hir gud Maister in hir rigth, and to hir power she shall deserve hit. Wagge makys gret manasse to distres hir catell within thes iij or fawre dayes. Syr, and ye send me a bill to withstond him, I will do my power: for as by parall she has enfeffet your maistership, M. Cotesmore, Herre Doget, me and William Est. And Syr, I beseche you hold me excuset that I come not unto your maistership: I am a litill diseset for to ride. And almighty God preserve you, my lady, and all your housholde, the Monday afore Simon and Jude.
Your servaunt, Hugh Unton.
To my right worshipful Maister, Sir William Stonor, Knyght
In the fourteenth to fifteenth century the Lollards made the Chilterns their centre, in the sixteenth century the Reformation was warmly embraced and in the seventeenth the Quaker movement began here. John Hampden, who was supported by almost every squire, led the early resistance to Charles the first which developed to the Civil War. The Oxlades supported Hampden and a letter from Cromwell to a Captain Oxlade, thanking him for his part in the Civil War was held by the family in Queensland until about twenty years ago. Recently Sharon Oxlade of London came across Civil War grafitti on a Tomb in Winchester Cathedral which bore the name John Oxlade, possibly the same man.
Voluntas Ricardi Oxlade de Stokenchurche
Anno dni 1570 the fyrst of July in the twefflh yeare of the (reign) of our Soveryne Ladie Queen Elizabeth (Memoran .... ) that 1 Richarde Oxlade of Stokenchurche in the County of (Oxford) have distributed my tenements and goods in maner and forme following that is to saye that I give to my parishe church........... Then I give to everye of my childrens children one sheepe and lambe at the discretion of my wyffe. Then I give to every my childrens children fortye shillings to be equally divided between them. Then I give to Jane my wyffe all my goods duryng her liffe and tenements during her (widowhod) (my house where I now dwell excepted whiche 1 give to Augustine Oxlade my sonne Then 1 give to (Francis) Oxlade my sonne after my decease the barn and yards of a house called (Pythiners) Then 1 wyll that all my goods after the decease of my wyffe shall remain to my three sonnes, (Francis) Augustine and Valentyne Oxlade by even portions, my detts and legacies beyng payed as my wyll is, as was my wyll in the presence of Roberte Howard Laurence Creymer Edmund (Tollary) with others, the day and year abovesaid
Following is a statement in Latin which is unable to be translated.
All literature on this subject suggests that this statement has little if any information further to that contained in the body of the document.
According to figures supplied by a U.K. bank in 1999,Inuentarin 38p 3sh 3d would have translated to an amount of 13,356 pounds sterling though interestingly the figure in 1500 would have been 26,713 pounds sterling.
This Will is the earliest found so far in searches of the various repositories in the United Kingdom.It appears that the Oxlades were yeoman who produced wool then later cattle and grain but as the number of males in the family increased and the profitability of the farms decreased, bound their sons to trades such as meallemaking, glazing, printing, brewing and brick and tilemaking.
The Romans took their brickmaking skills with them when they returned home, although bricks were still made in France and Gemany. Brickmaking was re-introduced into England in the 14th century with an industry developing around Hull, (which traded with brick producing regions such as the Netherlands and the Baltic) and Beverley, East Yorkshire, where there was a good supply of clay and no stone for building. Itinerant brickmakers moved to where-ever good brick clay was to be found, such as the South East of England where Grand Houses, Churches, Schools and Colleges were built of brick. One pit at Slough (where several Oxlades later lived) supplied over two million bricks between 1442 and 1452.
It may be that the Oxlades came South following the brickmaking trade or perhaps given their supposed Anglo Saxon origin, they learned from others who had done so. The name Oxley is wide spread in Yorkshire and goes back at least as far as the 13th century. By the end of the 17th century brickmaking had become a very profitable business but as had grazing in the past, it had taken a downturn by the middle of the 18th century and along with it the Oxlades fortunes.
In 1636 Chancellor William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury was responsible for the granting of a charter securing privileges for the Oxford University Press and he also made significant contributions to the Bodleian Library, the main library of the university. Among those subscribed at the university at that time was Francis Oxlad, servitor (undergraduate assisted from college funds and performing menial duties in return) son of Thomas Oxlad of Stokenchurch, plebeian (an ordinary person), recorded as matriculated 15 October 1630 aged 24 and resident attendant of the family of William Davies in the Parish of All Saints, Oxford. It is possible that Francis was a page in the house of Davies as pages were usually drawn from the yeoman class.
Around 1658 Francis was followed by Francis jnr, a bookbinder with priveleged status in the university. Francis jnr appears again in the university records in 1666, this time as a bookseller with Francis snr shown as being a plebeian of Oxford City. It is likely that both father and son worked in the University Press and the Bodleian Library while at the university. John (Thomas) Oxlade, tonsor, was at Oxford university in 1691, he was possibly John Oxlade, barber chirugeon (surgeon)of Great Marlow who made his Will, 16 March 1701/2. The Will shows that he also sold brew as well as conducting his trade of trimming and surgery.
The shift away from Lewknor and Stokenchurch to Oxford was duplicated by a similar drift to London a few years later. On 1 Dec 1647 James son of James Oxlade, husbandman of Stokenchurch was apprenticed as a paviour in London and on 17 December 1684 Richard, son of Richard Oxlade, tilemaker of Deptford,Kent was bound to John Marriott of the Broderers Company. In the main only yeomen and successful tradesmen could afford to apprentice their sons to trades in London, though sometimes the overseers of the poor and church wardens paid for such apprenticeships for poor children.
It seems that not all the Oxlades were law abiding citizens as one of the older Oxlade family members in Bucks can recall his grandfather telling him that some of the Clan from around Lane End were known as highwaymen and at least one Oxlade was described as a rogue and a vagabond. As the Oxlades of Hambleden raised horses, perhaps the two occupations were interconnected. The U.K. publication "Avero's Biographical Index 1680-1830" mentions a Stephen Oxley, possibly Oxlade, of Middlesex, as having subscribed in 1771 to the "Sporting Calendar of Races running GB Ireland and Jamaicaas" and it may be he who owned the horse"Oxlade's Arabian" which is mentioned in an English Bloodstock book.
No mention of highwaymen is made in the Sessions Records where the only charges against any of the Oxlades seemed to be of a less serious nature. The first mentions Richard Oxlade of Lane End in June 1653 for being the reputed father of the child of Mary Turner, then at the Christmas Session of 1680/81 William Oxlade, tenant of Richard Turner, of Lane End, was "supressed" from selling beer for three years. At the Michaelmas Sessions, 6 October 1681, he was warned that he had ten days to draw off stock or warrants would be issued.
Again at the Easter Session, 30 Apr 1685 Richard Oxlade and Elizabeth his wife, William Oxlade and Mary his wife as well as Ann Oxlade, spinster, all of Great Marlow, are mentioned as having assaulted Richard Turnor, the coroner. Richard Oxlade,Carpenter of Lane End and or Steeple Claydon was before the Mid-Summer Session at Buckingham on16 July 1685 for building cottages without assigning four acres of land. This was considered the minimum amount of land that would sustain a man and his family.
At the Christmas Session at Aylesbury, 14 January, 1685-86 complaint was made to the Court that John Law, petty constable of Great Marlow, has been "very malitious and vexatious in troubling his neighbours ... under pretence of his said office." In particular it was alleged that he "did lately seiz and take into his Custody out of the Crowne Inne in Greate Marlow one John Oxlade, and him did lay or sett in the Stocks in the publique markett place att or about 8 of the Clock att Night, tho itt alsoe appeared to this Court that the said John Oxlade is a person of Civill life and conversation and att that tyme was not in any wise disorderly or abusive to any person, neither had he dranck one flaggon of beer." This action was apparently a malicious device to discredit Oxlade because he had brought an action for trespass againt Law recently. Law is, therefore, discharged from his office and Anthony Feild, tailor, is to be sworn in his place
From around the middle of the seventeenth century a number of the Oxlades established businesses in London, Surrey and Kent. One,William Oxlade, born about 1742, the son of William Oxlade, labourer (possibly son of a yeoman) of Sheer Lane became a well known bookbinder who had premises first at St Pauls Churchyard and later in Chilswell Street, London. His son John, also a bookbinder and bookseller had premises in Water Lane, Fleet Street and later Union Street, Hoxton.
Concerned by the effects of the Napoleonic Wars upon the country, John Oxlade, master bookbinder of London, joined the London Corresponding Society which sought to influence the Government to look the plight of the ordinary people, particularly the large number of destitute former soldiers who roamed the country without food or work. John Oxlade was goaled for three years without trial for his association with the L.C.S. and more can be read of this in the transcription of the Narrative of John Oxlade by Peter H. Oxlade of Croydon,Surrey.
The Rookery Hotel in London, which has been created from the repaired remaining houses of Peter's Lane, Cowcross, has agreed to the request of Oxlade Clan members to name a room after John Oxlade who at one time lived at 10 Peter's Street. In what could be considered a fitting tribute, the Library has been named for him. A photograph of the Library is contained in the Chapter on the L.C.S.
Around 1768 Richard Oxlade and wife Joyce, formerly of St Giles, Reading had sons William and Richard Oxlade christened at Dulwich College, Dulwich. Richard snr is most probably the brother or cousin of the Oxlade (possibly William), who is recorded as leasing Pond Cottage (which still stands) five outbuildings and the Tilekiln from the College. He set up as a brick and tile manufacturer, then converted the premise to a glue factory, using vellum offcuts as the principal ingredient in the product. The business was not a financial success so it was taken over by his son (who was not named) and Jacques Tiffin. They used cheaper hides and waste products which smelled so badly that the College insisted that the business move to Sydenham. The Tilekiln and yards were later replaced by a butcher shop and ten dwellings which are still in use today.
By the beginning of the nineteenth century the Oxlade's fortunes were in further decline and the grandson of Johnathan Oxlade (abt.1710 - 1771) of Widmere Farm near Marlow, a substantial property owner and described as a gentleman, was shown to be a gardener in the 1851 Census. The farms, Pythynners, Water End, Walters Ash, Plomers End, Thompsons, Widmer and Munday Dean, as well as the properties at Chisbridge Cross, Fingest, Lane End, Great Marlow, Iver, Langley and Dulwich were all in other hands by the 1881 Census and the Oxlades were labouring for wages on other peoples farms or were making chairs and paper in Bucks, Berks and Oxon. In London they worked in the printing and building industries, as well as on the railways, they drove coaches, carried goods and traded in tea.
According to the genealogist Eve McLaughlin, this move away from agriculture came about as a lot of farmers over-extended themselves in the war years, buying more land on mortgage. " Came the peace, prices tumbled, the money men moved in and introduced enclosures with the result that the small men with minimal capital couldn't compete.They sold up and came on the labour market just as machinery was being introduced and farm work became less labour intensive. This resulted in surplus agricultural labourers, lower wages,and general unrest, followed by migration and emigration." Her book The Poor Are Always With Us, gives an insight into how people coped in these times.
As a result of these changing conditions several of the Oxlade families moved abroad between 1860 and 1900, mainly to Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States of America. Three of the sons from a family who had earlier moved to Yorkshire, worked for the British Cable Company in Asia, New Zealand and South America while their brothers served with the Army in India, Scotland and Ireland. Another branch of the Clan from Fingest and Lane End, Bucks, went to South Australia and set up in brickmaking while in Victoria, Australia, Benjamin Oxlade formerly a Lighterman of London and Surrey, joined the postal service.
The 1822 edition of the Charleston Directory and Strangers Guide lists a Thomas Oxlade and in the 1850 Census of Charleston, South Carolina, America, Thomas C. Oxlade was recorded as a watchmaker who also had land in Florida. His son Thomas Smith Oxlade served in the Confederate Army in the American Civil War. It appears that they were members of the Wargrave Oxlades who were Brickmakers in that Village from around 1690. These Oxlades were by no means the earliest to travel to America, though perhaps the first to do so by choice.
In 1638 there was an entry made in the First Wycombe Ledger Book " Item paid to John Southall for moneys disbursed towards Oxlads passage ynto Virginia xxs." Apparently this Oxlade was one of those unfortunate people who were sent to the Americas as bonded servants. They have been called the white slaves of America as their treatment was similar to that of the African slaves who were brought there much later to work in the cotton fields. It is possible that this un-named Oxlad was an orphan or perhaps he had somehow fallen foul of the law and was sent there as a punishment. Again, it was recorded that after the Restoration men below a certain rank who were involved in the sentencing and beheading of Charles the first were sent to America as slaves. Perhaps this practice was current during the English Civil War as well. The Bristol Registers of Servants sent to Foreign Plantations 1654-1686 and 18th Century White Slaves by Daniel Meaders details the experiences of the people sent abroad as indentured servants.
Little is known about those Oxlades who went to Canada except for the orphaned sisters Edith and Louise Oxlade of St Pancras, London, who were sent there under the Bernados Scheme in 1888. Both their parents had died from tuberculosis, a scourge which decimated the families of at least two of the Oxlade lines. Edith married in Canada though she and her husband Francis Mc Coy later moved to Michigan in America. The year after Edith and Louise were sent out a William Oxlade was shown aboard the"Buenos Ayrean" under Home Children Scheme. Research to date hasn't established which William Oxlade this was. George Henry Oxlade born Holborn, London emigrated to Canada after WW I and and number of his descendants still reside there.
Today, the largest number of Oxlades outside the United Kingdom live in South Australia, the majority of whom are descendants of Hector or Henry Oxlade, his wife Helen or Ellen Finch and children, who arrived in Adelaide aboard the 'Joseph Somes' in November 1850. Hector was the son of Catherine Green and her husband Thomas Oxlade, yeoman, of Lane End, Bucks.
The Oxlades of Victoria are in the main descended from Benjamin Oxlade, born in Lambeth and his wife Elizabeth Shelley, who arrived in Melbourne aboard the 'Votigen' on 29 September 1861. It is likely that Benjamin's family were connected to John Oxlade of L.C.S. fame and it was his descendant, Geoffrey Arthur Oxlade and his wife who first became aware of the Place Manuscripts in the British Library which contained the Narrative of John Oxlade.
The Queensland Oxlades spring from the marriage of Louisa Maria Byers of Toowomba and George, son of William Oxlade, coal merchant of York,Yorkshire, whose family left Bucks around 1811. George seems to have arrived in Queensland on 20 November 1863 aboard the 'Fiery Star' either in company with a relative, Charles Thomas Oxlad or on his recommendation. Charles was the son of clergyman, Robert Oxlad of Westminster,London and Neath,Wales.It is thought that Robert may have been from Lane End. This family have retained the old spelling of Oxlad to the present day.
In the year 2005 the Oxlades can be seen to have spread out from England,Scotland,Wales and Ireland and are now to be found all over the world. They are represented in most of the professions, some of the trades and in Australia at least, two follow the tradition of their earliest forebears, as graziers. Many are employed in the printing trade, though none of those interviewed knew of the Oxlades long tradition in that area. A family who have followed such a calling for nearly four hundred years must surely be something of a record. The computer industry seems to be the modern extention of the printing trade and a large number of the younger Oxlades are employed in this area. At this time no-one seems to be engaged in brickmaking or the allied trades which predated the Oxlades employment in printing.
Location and Origins
It is possible that the Valley of the Oaks is the Valley of the Ock River in Berkshire. Many of the Oxlades were born in Berkshire particularly those recorded in the 15th and 16th centuries. There were also Oxlades recorded to the north of Oxford and east of Aylesbury at this time. Another possibility is the area around Oakley, now in Berkshire, about twelve miles west of Aylesbury. In the 17th century there were quite a number of Oxlades recorded in the surrounding villages of Brill (mostly as Oakley), and Noke,Islip,Wendlebury and Witney .
Recent research gives yet another option, the valley could be anywhere in Bucks, Berks or Oxon, however, Ackhampstead, about three quarters of a mile from Lane End, which also has a long OXLADE association, is a real possibility.
Achamstede is an Olde English word meaning Oak Homestead and there was a Chapel on the site for at least 800 years. Due to a dwindling Congregation, the Chapel was taken down around 1847 and rebuilt at Cadmore End. A small copse of trees has grown over the remains of the flint walls and the only visible reminder is a small wooden Cross with the name Ackhampstead on it.
Robert Alan Oxlade previously of Canada though again residing in the U.K. has yet another explanation. He feels that the Oxlades are possibly descendants of people of the Oc language group(lanque d'oc) who came to Oxford with Eleanor of Acquitaine and intends to research this theory further.
Site of Ackhampstead Chapel Remains
Spelling Variations
The family name OXLADE has been recorded in the following ways:
Axley Hawksled Hawksley Hocksley Oakslade Oaksley Ocle Ocley Oceley Ockslade Ogle Oxeled Oxeleye Oxlad Oxlade Oxlaid Oxland Oxlar Oxlard Oxlat Oxlate Oxlatt Oxlay Oxleach Oxled Oxlead Oxlede Oxlege Oxleide Oxlej Oxley Oxleye Oxlit Oxlite Oxlord Oxnaed Oxnard Oxtad Oxlye
Meaning of the Name
Oxlade is an unusual Olde English pre 7th Century locational name which has nothing to do with an Ox! It means " the dwellers in the Valley (slaede) of the Oaks (acs) " the spelling being transcribed over the past fifteen hundred years. The first recorded spelling - Michael de Ocslade was dated 1279 and it also appeared in The Hundred Roll of Oxford in the reign of King Richard II 1378 - 1400.
Family names and surnames came into use after the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Normans introduced National Taxation and taxation required accurate and identifiable records, hence the origin of the Poll Tax, being a tax on heads ( poll = heads ) and the need for surnames. There are some 200,000 Europeon surnames in use, of which at least half bear little resemblance to the original spelling. Surnames, like place names, have been subject to subtle changes over the centuries but the sound of the name allowing for different local dialects or even language changes may well be the same. It is important to understand that all names at their creation had a definite meaning. These would have been Geographical, Locational, Job Descriptive or Personally Descriptive as in nicknames, there being approximately equal numbers to each group.
The above was individually researched by The Name Origin Association, P.O. Box 43 Torquay, Devon in March 1989 for Peter Watson of England.
Surnames
Originally the coat of arms identified the wearer, either in battle or in tournaments. Completely covered in body and facial armour the knight could be spotted and knownby the insignia painted on his shield and embroidered onhis surcoat, the draped garment which enveloped him. Between the 11th and 15th centuries it became customary for surnames to be assumed in Europe but were not commonplacein England or Scotland before the Norman conquest of 1066.
They are to be found in the Domesday Book of 1086 when the nobility assumed surnames but it was not until the reign of Edward II (1307 - 1327) that surnames became general practice for all people. Many factors contributed to the establishment of the surname system. For generations after the Norman Conquest of 1066 very few dynasts passed on hereditary surnames but most of the population with awide choice of first names out of Celtic, Old English, Normanand Latin avoided ambiguity without the need for a second name.
As society became more stabilized there was property to leave in Wills, the towns and villages grew and the labelsthat served to distinguish a handful of folk in a small village were not adequate for the large towns where most of the householders were engaged in the same trade so that their occupations could no longer distinguish them. The problem was magnified by popularity gained by some first names, for example Thomas after 1170. The use of surnames grew first in the South with poorer folk slower to follow suit, however by the 14th century most of the population had acquired a second name.
Possible Doomesday Entry
Berechere (Berkshire) Pages 46 -48 Land of Ralph of Mortimer
7. Peasemore. Odelarde holds from him. Two Thanes held it before 1066; they could go where they would; here were 2 Halls. Then it answered for 8 HIDES; now for 3 HIDES. Land for 6 ploughs.
In Lordship 2 ploughs: 4 Villages and 11 smallholders with 3 ploughs.Woodland at six pigs.The value was 6 pounds; later 60 shillings; now 100 shillings.
In Compton Hundred
8. Hodcott. Odelard holds from him. Alwin held it from King Edward. Then and now for 5 Hides. Land for ....
In Lordship 2 ploughs; 5 smallholders with 1/2 plough. The value was 7pounds, now 4pounds.
Hida = English Unit of Land measuring or assessment often reckoned at 120 acres.
Hundred= District within Shire, whose assemblies of Notables and Village Representatives usually met once a month.
Peasemore = A Village 16 miles (26 k) West of Reading, Berkshire, 19 miles (31k) South of Oxford, 13 miles (22k) South of Abingdon.
Given today's (2006) house prices it's amazing to think that in 1085 the entire manor of Stansted was worth just 11 pounds, even though it had woodland for 1000 pigs, 20 acres of meadow, 11 villans, 1 priest, 3 slaves, 120 sheep, 24 goats, 2 horses and 5 asses!
Last changed: 2711/2006, 15:58:00