Coat of Arms & Family Crests Store
Burra Coat of Arms / Burra Family CrestThe surname BURRA was derived from the Old English word 'bur' the dweller at the bower, the cottages. Local names usually denoted where a man held his land, and indicated where he actually lived. Early records of the name mention Hugo le Burer, 1218, County Lancashire. William le Bourere, was recorded in Surrey in the year 1232. Alice Buerr, was documented in 1279 in County Cambridge. John Borra of Yorkshire, was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. Thomas atte Boure was the MP for Horsham, Surrey, in the year 1320. The acquisition of surnames in Europe during the past eight hundred years has been affected by many factors, including social class and social structure, naming practices in neighbouring cultures, and indigenous cultural tradition. On the whole, the richer and more powerful classes tended to acquire surnames earlier than the working classes and the poor, while surnames were quicker to catch on in urban areas than in more sparsely populated rural areas. These facts suggest that the origin of surnames is associated with the emergence of bureaucracies. As long as land tenure, military service, and fealty were matters of direct relationship between a lord and his vassals, the need did not arise for fixed distinguishing epithets to mark out one carl from another. But as societies became more complex, and as such matters as the management of tenure and in particular the collection of taxes were delegated to special functionaries, it became imperative to have a more complex system of nomenclature to distinguish one individual from another reliably and unambiguously. At first the coat of arms was a practical matter which served a function on the battlefield and in tournaments. With his helmet covering his face, and armour encasing the knight from head to foot, the only means of identification for his followers, was the insignia painted on his shield, and embroidered on his surcoat, the draped and flowing garment worn over the armour. Bearers of this name are descended from Thomas Bowra, born in 1654 at East Grinstead, Sussex, the surgeon. Martin Van Buren (1782-1862), President of the United States of America (1837-41) and one of the founders of the Democratic Party, was born in Old Kinderhook, New York, the descendant of a certain Cornelius Vam Buran who settled in America in the year 1631. The associated coat of arms is recorded in Sir Bernard Burkes General Armory. Ulster King of Arms in 1884. |
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