The Derbyshires of Lancashire

I’ve found a lack of in-depth research about the Derbyshire surname online. This page is my attempt to fill that gap, providing maps and citations to help Darbies and Derbyshires (especially myself) understand the origin of their surname and see how their ancestry fits into the wider context.

Origins in the West Derby Hundred

Historically, Lancashire was divided into six “hundreds”: Lonsdale, Amounderness, Blackburn(shire), Leyland(shire), (West) Derby(shire), and Salford(shire). It was common for Lancashire families to live in one area for many generations and be named after local places^1,2.

The Derbyshires were likely named after the West Derby Hundred. This area was named after its judicial centre West Derby which probably started as a Viking settlement and is now a suburb of Liverpool. Derby comes from Old Norse Djúr-býr, meaning “deer farm/settlement”³. By 1086, Derby had risen to prominence as a legal and administrative centre and a castle had been built. West was added by 1177 to distinguish from the town of the same name in county Derbyshire⁴.

The earliest surname records with exhaustive coverage across the entire British Isles are in the 1800s. They are useful for observing regional patterns and deducing the origins of surnames. Derbyshire/Darbyshire was more common in Lancashire than anywhere else in the country⁵. This is partly because Lancashire was such a populous county, but even taking population size into account, a higher proportion of people were surnamed Derbyshire in Lancashire than in any other county. This implies that the surname originated in the West Derby Hundred of Lancashire rather than in the Derbyshire county, consistent with the trend of early Lancashire surnames being derived from very nearby places.

While the Derbyshire surname is most strongly connected to Lancashire, there is historical evidence of some people outside Lancashire being named after the Derbyshire county which I don’t touch on in this page^6,7.

Map showing prevalence of Darby and Derbyshire in the 1800s from census and valuations data. Source: Tracking Back⁵

Derbyshire vs Darby

The surnames Darby and Derbyshire have multiple lineages and origins. Darby is more widely scattered across the British Isles than Derbyshire, but with no similarly large number of bearers all in one county⁵. Darby is known to have two etymologies: Old Norse Djúr-býr (deer settlement) and Gaelic Ó (son of) Diarmada, Mac Diarmada, or Ó Duibhdhiormaigh³.

The surname Darby is known to be present in the Y-DNA haplogroups R-M269 (especially subclades with strong connections to Ireland and Scotland) and I-M253 (which has Germanic origins)^8–12. The surname Derbyshire is also known to be present in I-M253 (although in different subclades). Some American Derbies in I-M253 are related to British Derbyshires¹³ and appear to have lost the -shire suffix around the time of their migration to America.

Quibbles over spelling

English spelling only became standardised in recent centuries. The Derbyshire surname stretches back at least 800 years, and has been subject to much spelling variation over that time. Unless referring to a specific variant, I have used Derbyshire in this article because it is the most common spelling of the surname, even in Lancashire. However, the spelling Darbyshire is also relatively common, as I can well attest from a lifetime of saying my surname is “Darbyshire with an A”!

The spread of the Derbyshires

Medieval records are incomplete and unlikely to capture poorer people, but they give an idea of where the earliest Derbyshires lived. Surnames were uncommon. The likelihood of having a surname increased with wealth. It is not until the 1400s or later that most people in Lancashire had a surname, regardless of their social class².

There is evidence of Derbyshires starting near Prescot in the 1200s, moving south into the Leyland Hundred in the 1300s, before becoming common in the West Derby and Salford Hundreds in the 1600s. It is unclear whether these later clusters of Derbyshires descended from the earlier clusters, whether they took on the surname separately at a later time, or whether they were there all along but were too poor to show up in the paper trail.

It seems likely that the Darbyshires of Rivington are related to the Derbyshires of Leyland Hundred. Rivington is in Salford Hundred, just on the border with Leyland Hundred. Many of the Rivington Darbyshires’ descendants lived in Leyland villages while continuing to be baptised, married, and buried at Rivington Church.

Early Derbyshire migrants to America often dropped the -shire from their surname, leaving just Derby. For example, a John in Massachusetts (1672–1725) is recorded as Darby, Darbe, Darbeyshier, Derbyshare, and Derbyshire¹⁴. This may have been influenced by Darby’s wider dispersion in the British Isles. It may also have been a convenient shortening.

Legal documents from the 1200s

One author found four examples of the surname Derbyshire in legal transcripts from the 1200s^2,15–18. These men were Richard de Derbisire, Uhtred de Derbychyre, Adam son of Richard de Derbisire, and Richard de Derbyshire. Their stated locations are clustered around Preston and the Amounderness/Leylandshire border. Adam de Derbisire’s location is unclear but presumably fell within the same area.

Note, since writing this article I have discovered the Lancashire Archives hold a decent number of documents mentioning Derbyshires from the late 1200s onwards which I will incorporate into a future revision of this article¹⁹.

1332 lay subsidy returns

Only four “de Derbyshires” were recorded in the lay subsidy returns of 1332. The men in question are John de Derbishire in Charnock Richard, Robert de Derbyshire in Standish-with-Langtree, John de Derbyshire in Coppul-with-Worthington, and Adam de Derbyshire in Wrightington²⁰. These are in Leylandshire, fairly close to the border with West Derbyshire.

1641–42 Protestation returns

Lancashire’s Protestation returns contain information about 45 men and one woman with the surname Darbishire who took (or did not take) an oath of allegiance to “the true Protestant religion”²¹. Men in England over the age of 18 were required to take this oath, making the returns somewhat akin to a census.

The largest clusters of Derbyshires recorded in these returns were in Eccles and Flixton in Southern Salfordshire (fairly close to the border with West Derbyshire). For most people, only the first name, surname, and parish are recorded. However, additional information is noted for five men (three in Leylandshire and two just across the border in Rivington, Salfordshire):

• Richard Darbishire of Croston Town was a servant to Richard Elizabeth Watkinson.
• Nicholas Darbyshire of Hesketh-cum-Beconsaile was a servant of William Jumpe and a recusant who (like his employer) refused to take the oath. It was common for servants to adopt the same stance as their masters.
• Robert Derbishire of Mawdesley refused to take the oath.
• John Darbyshier of Rivington was a tailor.
• William Darbyshier of Rivington was a husbandman.