A'Bear Family History
Introduction & Overview
The surnames A’Bear and Abear have long aroused interest. Most people outside the family simply remark “That’s an unusual surname!” and go on to ask “Is it French?” Those who were born with the surname usually want to know more. This fascination for tracing one‘s ancestry has been popularised in recent years through easier access to records via the internet. Indeed, this resource has opened up communications between like-minded people generally, and sharing information in genealogy has also contributed to the success of those researching their family history.
The following section has been written in an attempt to satisfy those who seek quick answers to questions about the family name. A detailed chronological study then follows, itemising and analysing all available information in three time periods, 1066 - c1500, c1500 – pre-branch years and branches up to the present time.
The surname has been traced with certainty back to the earliest Parish Records at Wargrave, Berkshire, which were begun in 1538, and appears as early as 1478 in the early listings of land occupation for this village. At this time the surname was spelt in several ways including A Beyre, Abere, A Bere and A Beare. The family lived in and around this village working as farmers from at least this time until 1901, when the then long-established family home “Hill Farm” was sold and the last remaining A’Bears sadly moved away from the area.
However, as early as 1325 there is a record of a John Atte Bere living at Wargrave. Later, in 1367 and 1413, atte Beres appear in deeds relating to Wargrave. But by 1478 the name appears as Abeare. Thus it is generally accepted that the two names are one and the same, and that the longer version took its shortened form around 1450. “Atte Bere”, particularly in southern parts of England, is Saxon for “At or near the swine pasture”, a bere being a copse where pigs foraged. Thus, on the face of it, it would seem our ancestors were originally pig farmers. The apostrophe only appears much later, signifying the missing letters ‘tte’, and continues in most but not all of the current branches of the family to this day.
The fourteenth century was a time of great social change, with a new class of yeoman farmer arising and serfdom fast disappearing. Men began to exercise their rights and farm their own land, and thus the stage was set for our family to farm Wargrave (and the surrounding area) continually for nearly six hundred years. The family name remained John, and through good husbandry each successive generation grew in stature, gradually acquiring more land. Around the turn of the seventeenth century the Head of the Family assumed the name “John Abere of the hill”, a title which passed down through several subsequent generations. The relevance of this remains uncertain, though it has long been held that they once lived at Bear Hill in Wargrave. At this time, however, they do not appear to have lived on any prominent hill, but merely rising ground. Through good marriage in the eighteenth century they became “gentleman farmers”, and at their peak in the mid 19th century owned and farmed no less than three hundred acres of land, centred about the family home named “Hill House” in Hare Hatch. Clearly their association with a Hill remained important to them. By this time the family had also spread out and were farming substantial acres in nearby areas. Their demise came about mainly due to the great agricultural depression in the late 19th century, when lack of profit in farming left them no alternative but to begin selling off their land. Even so they succeeded at their occupation further afield, farming in Gloucestershire during the 20th century, and even to this day.
Though a John Atte Bere appears as a witness to a Warfield document in 1325, no other earlier records have been discovered in the vicinity. However, recorded in and around Wargrave from as early as 1318 the De la Bere surname begins to appear. De la Bere is the French-sounding equivalent of Atte Bere, “De la” meaning “of the”. References culminate in a John De la Bere of Wargrave being recorded in 1341, just one year later than the 1340 John Atte Bere record, and the coincidences of the same forename, similarity of surnames and both people being in the same place at around the same time provide enough evidence to satisfy most people that the families are indeed one and the same, recorded in French or English according to either the whim of the scribe or possibly the social suitability of the name used. If this is true, then the colourful history of the De la Bere family becomes part of our history, and to trace our ancestry further we have to follow the De la Beres back in time to the Norman Jnvasion; for it is alleged that Sir Richard De la Bere invaded England with William the Conqueror in 1066.
The full history of the De la Beres is lengthy, but to summarise, by the mid thirteenth century Richard De la Bere owned Stretford Manor in Herefordshire and went on in 1316 to become MP for Oxfordshire. He is known to have collected the lay subsidy tax in Shiplake just across the Thames from Wargrave, and in 1318 was appointed Sheriff of Berkshire. He was MP for Oxfordshire again in 1325. Richard was therefore very much in the locality at this time, and would have had a comfortable residence in the area, possibly Bear Place on Linden Hill, originally named Bear Hill, near to the later A’Bear family homestead at Harehatch. It is a close relative of his, possibly his son or brother who is believed to be the most likely candidate to have settled in or around Wargrave in the early fourteenth century and to then appear in records as John Atte Bere in 1340 and John De la Bere in 1341. Furthermore, it seems likely it was another close relative who, as family legend has it, helped to save the Black Prince at the Battle of Crecy soon after their Wargrave appearance in 1346. It is believed he was Chamberlain to the Black Prince, and for such bravery he was knighted and awarded a Coat of Arms (or his Arms were at least endorsed). Soon after the battle he was made Constable of Emlyn Castle in Wales, home of the Black Prince.
The question of our relationship with the De la Beres is not a recent one. Interest in the A’Bears right to wear the Crecy Coat of Arms dates back to a copy of it found on a map in our family’s possession dated 1790. Earlier than this in the 17th century certain members of our family aspiring to good connections were using the names Dellabere, de Beare and Delabeare, presumably to improve their social standing.
Belief in our De la Bere connection also brings into question the derivation of our surname, for we are now left asking the question “Was our family name originally Norman rather than Saxon?” In other words, were the De la Beres always French, or could it be that an Atte Bere went over to Normandy and came back with the invading army assuming the French name?
If the former suggestion is true, the word bere would derive from a French meaning, and it is generally accepted that Delaber or De la Barre derive from La Barre in the Cotentin, and were constantly abbreviated to De Bere or Bere. [The Cotentin Peninsula is the Cherbourg Peninsula in Normandy].
If the latter suggestion is true the name could have originated in other parts of the country where bere had alternative meanings. In Wales, for example, it meant a high place such as a hill, so maybe John Abere “of the hill” was trying to spell out to his villagers (and perhaps us) something important he had learned about his ancestry? If so, was it Bear Hill nearby, or a Welsh hill further back in time?
Furthermore, did the De la Bere family on their arrival choose to use the English equivalent name at certain times, perhaps as it was more socially acceptable to local people, or did the English Saxon name become changed to the French equivalent to satisfy the Normans, with it later reverting back to the English form again? My father Stanley George A’Bear illustrated the feasibility of both these possibilities, even suggesting a split in the family (and hence the family surname) perhaps through the embarrassment caused by the birth of an illegitimate son. Such a birth is known to have occurred in the thirteenth century. He concludes, of course, that we shall almost certainly never know. Perhaps the answer is not as complicated as this, and the name that was recorded was simply written down according to the scribe’s own preference.
Whatever the truth, the prestigious De la Bere name all but disappeared after 1341 in and around Wargrave, but spread in other regions to become Delabere, a name which continues in Geneva and elsewhere to this day.
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