BRAILSFORD-L Archives

From: "Chris Booth" <>
Subject: Brailsford Surname
Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 20:26:05 +0100

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While I am a slight interloper on this list since my interest is in the
history of the village of Brailsford in Derbyshire, this is inevitably
intertwined with the surname Brailsford. I thought the article below might
be of interest to the list. It was written by Maxwell Craven in the Derby
Telegraph as part of his review of our village book "Brailsford and
Ednaston - A Thousand Years On".


Family Name with a Unique Place in History

ONE of the first useless facts that enters my head when I think of
Brailsford is that the family of Brailsford of Brailsford is one of the very
few in England to unchallengeably have a descent from an Anglo-Saxon tenant
holding the same land before the Norman Conquest. They are unique in
Derbyshire, for whilst the Calows, Stantons, Okeovers, Knivetons and Alsops
have unquestioned descent from non-Normans living in 1066, none kept the
same piece of land through the upheavals of 1066-1086. Yet Elfin, or
Elsinus, or Alsin (probably Aelfwine) de Brailsford is recorded as tenant of
Henry de Ferrers there, and in Bupton and Osmaston, in 1086. We do not know
who his son, Nicholas, married, but she brought him Wingerworth, where
settled his youngest grandson, John, ancestor, apparently, of all the
Brailsfords in the north east of Derbyshire. John's eldest surviving
brother, Henry, was the great- great-grandfather of Sir Henry de Brailsford,
with whom the male line at Brailsford died out, his only daughter carrying
the estate to Sir John Bassett of Cheadle in 1356. In between there were
Hugh and Thomas, Serlo, and Eutropius who inherited Osmaston and took its
name instead of Brailsford, as did his grandson, who settled at Culland and
called himself de Culland.

There are loads of Brailsfords in the county today and right across the UK
and beyond, all descended from this family. What I didn't have time to do
was to comb the book to see if there was a family of that name living in
Brailsford today - it would seem appropriate after almost a thousand years!



Chris Booth (in hot and sunny Brailsford)

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• Brailsford Surname by "Chris Booth" <>