The Derbyshires of Lancashire
Mark Darbyshire
Updated 27 July 2025
Eight hundred years ago, an intriguing surname appeared in Lancashire. Over the centuries, it spread across the county, across England, and eventually across the world. Where did it come from, and what evidence can we find of early Derbyshire lineages in Lancashire? Let’s find out!
Origins in the West Derby Hundred
Historically, Lancashire was divided into six “hundreds”:
the Lonsdale Hundred
the Amounderness Hundred
the Blackburn Hundred, also called Blackburnshire
the Leyland Hundred, also called Leylandshire
the Derby or West Derby Hundred, also called Derbyshire or West Derbyshire
the Salford Hundred, also called Salfordshire.
It was common for Lancashire families to live in one area for many generations and be named after local places1,2.
Most people with the surname Derbyshire are named after the West Derby Hundred. This area was named after its judicial centre West Derby which was once 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 page6,7.
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.
While the surname Darby (or Derby) is attested in Lancashire in recent centuries5,14,15, it is much rarer than Derbyshire (or Darbyshire) and isn’t analysed any further in this article.
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 Preston 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 Derbyshire16. 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
Three men mentioned in legal documents from the 1200s were clustered around Preston and the Amounderness/Leylandshire border. They were Richard de Derbisire, Uhtred de Derbychyre, and Richard de Derbyshire2,17–19.
A bondman, Adam son of Richard de Derbisire, was gifted to Cockersand Abbey by Willelmus son of Adæ de Molineus20. It is unclear where he lived or came from. He was from one of three of the hundreds of Lancashire: Amounderness, Leylandshire, or Derbyshire. Willelmus was included in a list of donors from “Lonnesdale et Kendale” which now appears to be called Kirkby Lonsdale.
The Lancashire Archives21 record a John de Derbischire as a witness for a quitclaim in Duxbury in the late 1200s or early 1300s.
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 Wrightington22. 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”23. 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.
1664 hearth tax assessment
In 1664, we can count the number of heads of households in Lancashire, thanks to a hearth tax assessment which essentially served as a census of the county15.
There were 18 Darbishire households in the West Derby Hundred, 21 in the Salford Hundred, and one each in the Amounderness and Leyland Hundreds.
Parish registers
The following maps give an idea of the spread of the Derbyshire surname through Lancashire each century between the 16th and 20th centuries. The data comes from parish registers with records geocoded by abode (where available) or parish14. Parish records are unlikely to be complete, with various churches and people missing, especially in the earliest and most recent periods.
1538–1599
1600–1699
1700–1799
1800–1899
1900–1999
What can you do to help?
If you’re a biological male with the surname Derbyshire, one of the most useful things you can do is a Big Y-700 test with FamilyTreeDNA (and join the Darby FamilyTreeDNA group). This could fill some big gaps in our genetic family tree and improve our understanding of where the Derbyshires came from.
The Y chromosome is only passed from father to son along the all-male line, which generally means male relatives with the same surname. If you’re a biological female, you could ask your Derbyshire father/uncle/brother/cousin to do the Big Y test.
You can also flick me an email (hello@markd.nz) and tell me about your own family research or ask any questions you have.
I hope you enjoyed this article, and good luck with your own family history endeavours!