B is for …

Barr

I had thought this branch might have something to do with Great Barr or Barr Beacon, to the east of Walsall, and where my relative lived before moving to Devon in the late 1950s, but I traced the line back to a place named Barr in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland in 1789. This, in turn, may be derived from Scotland, where there are such places in both Ayrshire and Renfrewshire.

Beard
Man with beard.
Bedford
Usually from Bedford, Bedfordshire.
Blythe
Probably from Blythe, Warwickshire.

Bonsor
Roger bonsire 1246 Bart (London); Robert Bonsir 1332 Subsidy Roll Sussex. OFr bon sire ‘good sir’. Presumably, to do with the Norman Conquest?

Bouckley / Buckley
William de Bockeleye 1332 Subsidy Roll Warwickshire. Buckleigh in Abbotsford, Devon, Buckley Heath, Sussex, Buckley Green, Warwickshire, etc. None of these seems to fit my Bouckley ancestry in the Measham area.

Bradbury
Not in Reany. But from Bradbourne, Old English brad, broad and from Bury burh, place by the fort.

Brotherton
From North Yorkshire. Brotherton about 1030. Farmstead of the brother or a man called Brothir. Old English brothor or Old Scandinavian personal name, plus Old English tun.

Edwin and Florence Brown (mother’s parents) in the honeysuckle arbor at Leigh Cottage, Stonnall, Staffordshire.

Brown
Not really covered by Reany. Probably a person of dark or swarthy complexion.