We Are Utleys

     There is a Facebook site titled "We are Utleys" where those with my surname, 195 strong have left posts chronicling their roots across North America. I am reprinting the Ancient History of the Distinguished Surname "Utley" for them. I have this document hanging proudly in my home. Enjoy all ye who form Utley Nation.
     The Saxon Chronicle is a manuscript which was painstakingly researched by monks of the 10th century and now dwells in the British Museum. Emerging through the Chronicles of history is one of the oldest family names, Utley and the distinguished history of this surname is interwoven into the tapestry of the history of England.
     Historical analysts have used many sources in the preparation of this document such as the Domesday Book, the Ragman Rolls (1291-1296), the Curia Regis Rolls, The Pipe Rolls, the Hearth Rolls, parish registers, baptismals and tax records.
     They found the first record of the Utley name in Shropshire where they were seated from early times and their records first appeared on the early census rolls taken by the early Kings of Britain to determine the rate of taxation on their subjects.
     The surname Utley was found in the archives, the name was sometimes revealed as Ottley, Otley, Oatley, Otely and these changes in spelling occurred even between father and son. It was not uncommon, for example for a person to be born with one spelling variation, married with another and yet another to appear on their gravestone. Scribes spelled the name it sounded as it was told to them. From century to century the spellings changed.
     The family name Utley was found to be descended from the Saxon race. The Saxons were a fair-skinned people led by the brothers Generals/Commanders Hengist and Horsa, who settled in England around 400 A.D. They first settled on the east coast coming from the Rhine Valley. They spread north and westward from Kent and during the next 400 years forced the Ancient Britons back into Wales and Cornwall to the west, Cumbria and Scotland to the north.
     The family name Utley emerged as a notable English family in the county of Shropshire where they were recorded as a family of great antiquity seated as Lords of the manor of Oteley and estates in that shire. They branched to to Pitchford in that same shire. By the 13th century they branched north into Yorkshire and into Shropshire where they held considerable estates. They also settled in Oteley in Middlesex. George Ottley was Lord Mayor of London in 1444.
     The next two or three centuries found the name Utley flourishing and contributing greatly to the culture of the nation. England was ravaged by religious conflict during 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Protestantism, the newly founded political fervour of Cromwellianism, and the remnants of the Roman Church rejected all but the most ardent followers. Many families were freely "encouraged" to migrate to Ireland, or to the Colonies. Some were rewarded with grants of land, others were indentured as servants for as long as 10 years.
     These unsettling times were disturbing and the New World beckoned the adventurous. They migrated, some voluntarily from Ireland, some by Army service, but mostly directly from England. Some also moved to the European continent.
     Members of the family name Utley sailed aboard the armada of small sailing ships known as "White Sails", which plied the stormy Atlantic. The overcrowded ships were pestilence ridden, sometimes 30-40% of the passenger list never reaching their destination, their numbers decimated by sickness and the elements. Many were buried at sea.
     Included amongst the first migrants who settled in North America, which could be considered a kinsman of the surname Utley, or a variable spelling of that family name was William Otley who settled in Philadelphia in 1850.
     The east coast ports were crowded. From the port of entry many settlers trekked their way west, joining the wagon trains to the prairies or the west coast. During the American War of Independence, many loyalists made their way to Canada about 1790, and became known as the Empire Loyalists. They were granted equivalent lands along the banks of the St. Lawrence and in the Niagara Peninsula.
     During the course of research of the Utley name it was determined the many Coat of Arms were granted to different branches of the family name. The most ancient grant of a Coat of Arms was silver with three black lion heads and a black boarder.

    ***Note this written information was provided by a firm called History of Names from Marco Island, Florida.