A'Bear Family History
The Origin of the Family Name
The earliest Family legend has it that an early ancestor first took his name as “A Bearer” because he was the Norman Standard Bearer at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. This notion has been generally dismissed, not least because the words “standard bearer” do not originate from the Norman-French language but the Anglo-Saxon. However, family legends are often based on at least an element of truth, and the Norman invaders were, of course, fought by Saxon men. For now, though, the possibility is put aside as there is no hard evidence to support the notion, and because other more likely derivations should be considered.
In old English, especially in the South, the word for a grove of trees was BEARU and its dative form was BEARA or sometimes BAER. In Southern England a man who lived at a copse where pigs foraged would have been called ATTE BEARA or ATTE BAER. In Wales, though, the word bere meant high ground, such as a hill, and we should not discount the possibility that the name originally came from here.
The first known record of the surname Atte Bere dates to around 1230 when a John atte Bere owned Ibsley & Malshanger in Hampshire. Soon afterwards in 1247 a Nicholas atte Bere appears in the Subsidy Rolls for Somerset. They then appear in several other English counties before their first appearance at Wargrave, Berkshire in 1325.
There seems no doubt that A’Bear is a contraction of atte Bere, for the name atte Bere continued in the Wargrave area until at least 1413, and by 1478 the first Abeare reference appears. Different spellings of the name then continue in and around Wargrave until the turn of the 20th century.
Matters are made more complicated by the likely connection with the de la Bere family. Clearly this surname appears to be the French equivalent of the Saxon surname. A study of this connection reveals that, in certain cases, both surnames were used either for the same person or within the same family group. See Delaberes & Atteberes. Thus we have to consider the likelihood that the derivation of our name is Norman French.
The de la Beres are believed to have arrived with the Norman Invasion in 1066. Records stretch back with certainty to around 1200, and confirm the family to have had status then and throughout their long and colourful history. A comprehensive study of the family was undertaken by David Nash Ford, and his findings may be viewed at http://www.mayfamilyhistory.co.uk/abear/
In our search for our true roots we are then left asking the question which came first, the Saxon name which became ‘Normanised’ or the Norman name which became ‘Saxonised’? The answer might at first seem obvious, since the name came over with the Normans; but the answer is not that simple, as my father Stanley George A’Bear explained in his study of the Family History. See The Delabere Connection
To summarise, it is quite conceivable that the Saxon name was taken over to Normandy prior to the invasion, and changed to the French equivalent to become acceptable to the majority of the invading army. Thus at this juncture we really do not know if the name had a Norman or Saxon derivation. A study of the early references found relating to both names reveals that de la Bere is by far the more frequently recorded surname. However, this does not necessarily mean that the Saxon form is the derivative, as the records by nature mainly relate to more prominent people.
For many people an answer to the question does not really matter since, in either case, after the invasion we all became one nation. However, research often throws up unexpected results, and there is another avenue to explore, namely the derivation of the name ‘de la Bere’.
Delaber or De la Barre are considered to come from La Barre in the Cotentin, (the Cherbourg Peninsula). The name was constantly abbreviated to De Bere or Bere, in which latter form it appears in Duchesne's copy. (Ref: Battle Abbey Roll)
At the time of writing there is little evidence amongst family records to support this notion, although our surname is recorded as de la Ber and de La Bere (with a capital L) and (possibly) Walter de la Barre, all in the 13th century. Also in 1357 a Thomas A. Barre was a sheriff of Herefordshire together with Richard de la Bere. (Ref: TAFOW pg35)
La Barre is the French for a bar or piece of land jutting out into the sea, so de la Barre makes perfect sense as a name for someone living on a peninsula. It is therefore quite feasible that a soldier named de la Barre, possibly a Richard de la Barre, fought for William the Conqueror and perhaps even distinguished himself in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings. He soon settled in England, and before long the family surname became corrupted by speech and/or writing to the nearest Saxon English equivalents ‘de la Ber’ or ‘de la Bere’, falsely suggesting to future historians that our ancestors were Saxon pig farmers or from the Welsh hills. At times, further corruption could have changed the French ‘de la’ to the English ‘atte’, more particularly amongst the working classes and village communities, and far less amongst the higher ranking ruling class where the French prefix stood firm. Far in the future, both names would survive, de la Bere becoming shortened to Delabere, a family still in existence in Geneva today, and atte Bere becoming shortened to Abere, which in turn would be misspelt in many ways and would much later even include an apostrophe to indicate the missing letters. Even now our surname is easily misspelt in many ways, and certain branches choose to omit the apostrophe).
The above suggestion makes sense and fits well with what we know. It even includes an element of truth regarding the family legend – that our name does stem back to the Norman Invasion – but it remains unproved.
Quite possibly there were true Saxon atte Beres living both before and after the Norman Invasion, some of whom may even appear somewhere amongst the collection of medieval references found to date. But in the search for our ancestry before the atte Beres settled in Wargrave in the early fourteenth century we cannot escape the fact that both names, atte Bere and de la Bere, each occur twice in the same place at around the same time, almost as if the two different names were recorded deliberately to declare the connection – and that place happened to be Wargrave itself.
* * * * *