The surname of BILLER was a baptismal name 'the son of Beli'. The name was brought into England in the wake of the Norman Conquest. The name was also occupational, a maker of pruning hooks and similar implements. Occupational surnames originally denoted the actual occupation followed by the individual. At what period they became hereditary is a difficult problem. Many of the occupation names were descriptive and could be varied. In the Middle Ages, at least among the Christian population, people did not usually pursue specialized occupations exclusively to the extent that we do today, and they would, in fact, turn their hand to any form of work that needed to be done, particularly in a large house or mansion, or on farms and smallholdings. In early documents, surnames often refer to the actual holder of an office, whether the church or state. The names introduced into Britain by the Normans during and in the wake of the Invasion of 1066, are nearly all territorial in origin. The followers of William the Conqueror were a pretty mixed lot, and while some of them brought the names of their castles and villages in Normandy with them, many were adventurers of different nationalities attached to William's standard by the hope of plunder, and possessing no family or territorial names of their own. Those of them who acquired lands in England were called by their manors, while others took the name of the offices they held or the military titles given to them, and sometimes, a younger son of a Norman landowner, on receiving a grant of land in his new home dropped his paternal name and adopted that of his newly acquired property. Early records of the name mention Thomas Bilson and Margary Pussye, married in London in 1561. Thomas Bilson of Winchester, registered at Oxford University in 1606. Baptised. James Richard Bilson, at Kensington Church, London in 1627. The associated arms are recorded in Sir Bernard Burkes General Armory. Ulster King of Arms in 1884. |
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