Origins of the Grice surname…
The following article appears on several different Grice web sites, but none of them credit the original source. I made a copy here in case those other sites disappear. Please email me if you know the orginal source of this text. Carl
Careful research by professional analysts using such ancient manuscripts as the Domesday Book (compiled in 1086 by William the Conqueror), the Ragman Rolls, the Wace poem, the Honour Roll of the Battei Abbey, The Curia Regis, Pipe Rolls, the Falaise Roll, tax records, baptismals, family genealogies, and local parish and church records shows the first record of the name Grice was found in Norfolk where conjecturally they were, in 1066, Lords of the Manor of Brockdish, the King’s land, whose feudal Lord was William de Noyers, Count of Nevers seated originally at Poitevin and St-Cyr de Nevers in Normady. Sir William also held Grayhurst Manor through Bishop Odo from King William of Normandy. From this family also descend the Lords Monson and Viscounts Castlemaine. The original estates were sold in 1327. The village now consists of a church, St. Edmunds, which has both Saxon and Norman windows, obviously predating the Norman Conquest by many years.
Many alternate spellings of the name were found. They were typically linked to a common root, usually one of the Norman nobles at the Battle of Hastings. The name Grice occurred in many references, and from time to time, the surname included the spellings of Grice, Gryce, Grise, Grisewood, DeGrice, Grycie, and Griese, and many more. Scribes recorded and spelled the name as it sounded. It was not unlikely that a person would be born with one spelling, married with another, and buried with a headstone which showed another. All three spellings related to the same person. Sometimes preferences for different spelling variations either came from a division of the family, or, for religious reasons, or sometimes patriotic reasons.
The family surname Grice is believed to be descended originally from the Norman race. They were commonly believed to be of French origin but were,, more accurately, of Viking origin. The Vikings landed in the Orkneys and Northern Scotland about the year 870 AD, under their Chief, Stirgud the Stout. Later, under their Jarl, Thorfinn Rollo they invaded France about 940 AD The French King, Charles the Simple, became the first Duke of Normandy, the territory of the north men. Duke William who invaded and defeated England in 1066, was descended from the first Duke Rollo of Normandy.
Duke William took a census of most of England in 1068, and recorded it in the Domesday Book. A family name capable of being traced back to this document, or to Hastings, was a signal of honour for most families during the middle ages, and even to this day.
In the process of researching this distinguished family name the most ancient grant of Coat of Arms was traced from the branches which developed their own Arms. The most ancient grant of a Coat of Arms found was: Red and blue quartered background, on a silver sash, three black boars, tusked. The crest is a wild boar with a gold crown.
The surname Grice emerged as a notable English family name in the country of Norfolk where the original estates and village evolved from Bodise, then Brodiso, then Brockdish, and later Brokedish, and was, at one time, even mispelt Brokedisk. Grice has been incorrectly related affectionately to a small pig by some historians, but more properly it is translated as “the Grey”. The family also gave their name to Grisewood from an ancient estate. By the 13th century at least one branch of the family had been lured north by Earl David of Huntingdon’s (King David of Scotland) promise to the Norman nobles of lands in Scotland. Mungo Gryse was associated with the Abbot of Sweetheart Abbey in 1555, and later, during the religious turmoils of the 17th century, Robert Gricie of Buittle was accused of being a papist. Meanwhile, in England, the main stem of the family acquired estates in Iver in Buckinghamshire and at Littleton in Middlesex. They also branched to Essex. Notable amongst the family at this time was Grice of Brokedish.
The surname Grice contributed much to local politics and in the affairs of England or Scotland. During the 12th century many of these Norman families moved north to Scotland, following Earl David of Huntingdon who would become King of Scotland. Later, in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries England and Scotland were ravaged be religious and political conflict. The Monarchy, the Church and Parliament fought for supremacy. The unrest caused many to think of distant lands.
Settlers in Ireland became known as the “Adventurers for the land in Ireland”. They “undertook” to keep the Protestant faith, and were granted lands previously owned by the Irish. Elizabeth Grice was married to Alderman Daniel Hutchinson, Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1651. Elizabeth was descended from the main branch of Brokedish.
The attractions of the New World spread like wildfire. Many sailed aboard the fleet of sailing ships known as the “White Sails”
In North America, migrants which could be considered a kinsman of the family name Grice, or variable spellings of that same family name included Katherine Grice settled in Maryland in 1774 and H. Grice arrived in San Francisco in 1850. Other settlers named Gries or Griess are unrelated and are of Germanic origin. From the port of arrival many settlers joined the wagon trains westward. During the War of Independence some declared their loyalty to the Crown and moved northward into Canada and became know as the United Empire Loyalists.
Meanwhile, the family name was active in the social stream. There were many notables of this name, Grice. Benning Moore Grice, Supreme Court Justice of Georgia, U.S.A. , and his father Justice Warren Grice.
The following text comes from the New Zealand Le Grice site. Carl
The Name
The name Le Grice, however it is spelt, has three possible meanings. The first is a direct transition from Old French and simply means The Grey. Probably referring to hair ie “The Grey-haired Ones“.
But if we keep digging it also means “Swine-herd” or “Pig Farmer“. This translation is similar in both Middle French, Old French and even Icelandic.
Nothing is proven yet but via the Normans from Normandy in France a link can probably be traced back to Norseman who raided the European coastline as Vikings.
The third meaning is “The Well-Nourished One” and may be a play on the name Le Gros, meaning “The Big” .
The Le Grys/Le Grice family is reported by the College of Arms to be one of only eighty families in England who can trace their lineage back to 1066.
http://www.griceland.com/Genealogy/griceName.html
Grice’s in 1066…
This article was found on the New Zealand Le Grice site, which credits it to Jonathan Richood Wood (Dick) Le Grice of Weston Longville Norwich, and is from an article published in the in-house publication for Norwich Union Insurance. I’ve copied the article to this site as a backup. Carl
Dick Le Grice can trace his family line right back to the Norman Conquest
On the 14th November, nine hundred and thirteen years ago, a Norman army charged up a hill, later called Senlac, smashing the shield wall of King Harold’s bodyguard, and Anglo-Saxon England came to an abrupt end.
One of the Norman leaders on that fateful day in 1066 was Roger de Montgomerie, later to become the Count of Shrewsbury, and following his banner was Erard Le Grys and his five sons.
To the victor, the spoils, they say, and as a reward for his exertions, Erard received much land, fragmented (according to William’s crafty idea of letting no one man have too big a single holding) between Suffolk, Norfolk, Dorset, Lincolnshire and Shropshire. We can assume his sons inherited various parts of his estates, and certainly four of them are mentioned in Dugdale’s Monasticon Anglicanum, an account of English Monastic houses which appeared in the 17th century. This work includes extracts from the Domesday Book, one of which mentions Erard’s second son Hugues or Hugo.
Although Erard’s first son Gautier is reported in Dugdale’s book to have held Suffolk lands, it seems, according to the same source, that his son Richard moved to Neatishead in Norfolk, and began the family’s unbroken association with the county of Norfolk.
Naturally, tracing back twenty-seven generations is a complex and lengthy task and I am indebted to a life-time’s work done by my Uncle, Norman John Le Grice, who has spent many summer holidays prowling around country churchyards.
Uncle Norman’s researches led to his delving into such varied sources as the Society of Genealogists 30,000 volume library, although he says he did not learn much there; Boyd’s Marriage Register which contained twenty-nine references to the name; and Rye’s Norfolk Families, which was informative about the earlier ancestors and the coats of arms; and inevitably Bloomfield’s Norfolk.
The Guildhall and British Museum Libraries provided original sources such as the Feet of Fines – Norfolk 1198-1202, the Monasticon Anglicanum and the Visitation of Norfolk, an inquiry into the right to Coats of Arms, made in 1563. These are only a few of the books and records which he searched. He was somewhat surprised when visiting the College of Arms to be told by Windsor Herald that he was already researching the name at the request of a Cornish branch of the family trying to establish their title to use the coat of arms. The Herald even thought he could see a family resemblance between Uncle Norman and the Cornish inquirer.
There is some confusion about the coat of arms itself. It does not appear in Fosters Feudal Coats, whereas Le Gros and Le Grose coat does. Certainly, however, the Le Grys coat is accepted by the College of Arms, as being recognized by long usage, It was allowed to the family at the Visitation. The record of this is still kept in the College basement, confirming the grant as being “quarterly gules and azure or on a bend argent, three boars passant sable, collared or”. In non-heraldic terms, this is a shield divided into quarters, the top left and bottom right coloured red and the other two blue. Diagonally across the shield, from top left to bottom right is a band of silver on which are thee black boars in a standing or running position. The crest is a black boar with a gold collar. Earlier shields had the colours reversed and there was no gold collar or border, but the change is probably due to ‘differencing’ to distinguish between sons and generations over the years. The shield is probably an example of heraldic punning, since the derivation of the name is either from “The Gray” (heraldic equivalent silver) or from an Icelandic word for pig, hence the boars.
The pedigree recorded by the herald making the Visitation of 1563, lists ten generations back to Sir Robert Le Grys of Langley, who was an equerry to King Richard I. Uncle Norman has traced Robert back to Erard’s son Gautier through Gautier’s son Richard de Neatisherde. His son Gautier (fl 1148) had a son Guillaume (fl 1159) who was Robert’s father. Robert himself had a son, Sir Simon of Langley (fl 1238) whose own son Roger lived at Thurton, as did his son Thomas. Thomas’ son Roger lived at Brockdish and in turn had two sons, Thomas and William. Thomas’ line appears to have died out as his son John had two daughters only and his will of 1500 left his lands to his uncle, William.
As I am in a direct line from this William, I would like to see one thing cleared up. The line from Sir Robert of Langley to William is reasonably well documented, but there is a snag. According to Uncle Norman’s researches, Roger of Brockdish, the father of Thomas and William died in 1417, and William was not born until 1423. Either early records have omitted a generation, or there is a date wrong somewhere!
Be that as it may, Williams descendants appear to have settled for some years at Thelveton or Thelton, as it was then called, and included one Old John of Thelveton who had the distinction of living in three centuries, being born in 1699 and living until 1802.
William had at least seven children, and this lead to the family being somewhat dispersed. A branch grew up at Wakefield in Yorkshire, and there are of course our Cornish relatives. The family has had at least one Member of Parliament for Yarmouth, a seventeenth century Dr of Physick and one representative on the English side of Culloden. My side of the family seems to have lived, after Thelveton, in Ellingham, Attleborough, and King’s Lynn.
The name itself is as complicated as the family tree; Grip, Gris, Grys or Grice, on there own or with Le or le, all being variations on the spelling which have been in use at one time or another, but that was not uncommon as standardised spelling is something of a recent thing. It was around 1713 that the le Grice or Le Grice appears to be established as the accepted spelling, and this is the name which my two sons have inherited to continue the line into the future.
e-mail to carl@griceland.com
http://www.griceland.com/Genealogy/grice1066.html
Grice Coat of Arms…
All of the all of the text below and the first two shields were found on the New Zealand Le Grice site, the third shield on GriceOnline, and the last on Bill Grice’s web site. Everything was copied to this site as a backup. Carl
Coat of Arms
This Coat of Arms is a “single” coat of arms, meaning it is purely a Le Grice one and not superimposed by other Coats of Arms of families that have married into the family.
There are several “differenced ” coats with gold borders, reversed blue and red quarters, crowns around the crests neck and golden tusks and trotters. All of these relate to different members of the family, usually from the 16th and 17th century.
The last change was in the 1930s when a separate shield was granted to Charles Le Grice of Cornwall and the red and blue were changed into stripes and the boars courant have white spots.
There are several Church stained blass windows mainly in Norfolk that have the coat incorporated into other family coats, showing marriages.
The Family Shield
We are all entitled to use informally any of the family shields except the specific one still in use by the Cornish family of Le Grices. This shield shows a blue and red quartered shield, crossed with a grey or silver stripe and on it three running boars. The College of Heralds believes this could be a double reference to both grey and pig breeding.
The Crest
On the helm at the top of the shield is another running boar, this one with bigger shoulders and tusks and hooves of gold.
The shoulders denote fierceness and stubborn determination, often seen as just that in some members of the modern families, always moving forward without care of danger or pain. The crest sits on a rolled scarf, and the boar has no collar. Both these are symbolic of free men.
The Motto
The motto is simply “In Deo Confido”, In God I Trust.
e-mail to carl@griceland.com
http://www.griceland.com/Genealogy/griceShield.html
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