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  Renfroe Coat of Arms / Renfroe Family CrestThis Scottish surname of RENFROE was of local origin from the town of RENFREW in Renfrewshire. The earliest of the name on record appears to be Adam de REYNFRU of the county of Edeneburk, who was documented in the year 1296, and Robert REYNFREU was a Scots prisoner of war from Stirling, and was incarcerated in the Castle of Old Sarum between 1304 and 1307. The first people in Scotland to acquire fixed surnames were the nobles and great landowners, who called themselves, or were called by others, after the lands they possessed. Surnames originating in this way are known as territorial. Formerly lords of baronies and regalities and farmers were inclined to magnify their importance and to sign letters and documents with the names of their baronies and farms instead of their Christian names and surnames. The abuse of this style of speech and writing was carried so far that an Act was passed in the Scots parliament in 1672 forbidding the practice and declaring that it was allowed only to noblemen and bishops to subscribe by their titles. Later instances of the name include Galfridus RENFREW who appears in Aberdeen in 1408, and Bartholomew RENFREW was a charter witness in Glasgow in 1481. Robert RENFREW was recorded in Abbey Parish in Paisley in 1772. Hereditary surnames were originally imported from France into England during the Norman Conquest of 1066. In the two centuries or so after the Conquest surnames were acquired by most families of major landholders, and many landed families of lesser importance. There appears to have been a constant trickle of migration into Britain between about the years 1200 and 150O, mostly from France and the Low Countries, with a small number of migrants from Scandinavia, Germany, Italy and the Iberian peninsular, and occasional individuals from further afield. During this period groups of aliens settled in this country as for example, the Germans who from the late 15th century onwards settled in Cumbria to work the metal mines. Immigration during this time had only a small effect on the body of surnames used in Britain. In many cases, the surnames of immigrants were thoroughly Anglicised. The late sixteenth century saw the arrival, mostly in London and the south-coast ports of large numbers of people fleeing from the war regions of France. |
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