Walter De Harlington

Your site states: The name means  'Hill of Herela's People'  however,  the village was probably named after 'Walter De Harlington' who owned the lands adjacent to Barnburgh.  

I'm confused, surely once you've established what Harlington means, I would think that this in itself explains the origin of the name of the hamlet. I would also suggest that the 'de Harlington's took their name from the hamlet of Harlington, rather that the other way around. My supporting argument follows and is comprised of several extracts from documents I have found on the internet: 

The place name Barnburgh is first recorded as Berneborc or Barneburg(h) in 1086 according to the Doomsday Book. Harlington doesn't get a mention 

The place name 'Harlington' is first recorded as 'Herlatona' in a document dating to 1147-53 (Smith 1962, Vol 1 p.81) and refers to 'Herela's Farmstead'. The same document refers to Barnburgh as Barnaburc(h). Circa 1150 'Harlington' is referred to as 'Herlinton' and then Herlington in 1154, but by 1418 Smith informs us that documents are referring to 'Harlington' by its current name. - Smith, A.H.  1962  The Place-Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 

Although there is evidence of the earlier use of surnames, by and large it was after 1066 that the Norman barons introduced surnames into England, and the practice gradually spread.  

Initially, the identifying names were changed or dropped at will, but eventually they began to stick and to get passed on, so trades, nicknames, places of origin, and fathers' names became fixed surnames  - names such as Fletcher and Smith, Redhead and Swift, Green and Pickering, Wilkins and Johnson.  By 1400 most English families, and those from Lowland Scotland, had adopted the use of hereditary surnames. 

A class of family names, and perhaps the largest of all, is that comprising local surnames - names derived from and originally designating the place of residence of the bearer. Such names were employed in France at an early date (such as La Porte "at the entrance to") and were introduced into England by the Normans, many of whom were known by the titles of their estates. 

In France, the particle 'de' precedes a nom de terre ("name of land") in many families of the French nobility (for example, Maximilien de B'thune). A few do not have this particle (for example, Pierre S'guier, Lord Chancellor of France). The particle can also be du ("of the" in the masculine form), d' (employed, in accordance with the rules of orthography, when the nom de terre begins with a vowel; for example, Ferdinand d'Orlans), or des ("of the" in the plural).  

In French, 'de' indicates a link between the land and a person either landlord or peasant. 

The surnames adopted by the nobility were chiefly of this type, being used with the particles "de", "de la" or "del" (meaning "of" or "of the"). The Saxon equivalent was the word "atte" ("at the"), found in such names as John atte Brook, Edmund atte Lane, Godwin atte Brigg, and William Atwood, John Atwell and Atwater; in other cases The Norman "de" was substituted; and in still others, such as Wood, Briggs, and Lane, the particle was dropped. The surnames of some of the Pilgrim Fathers illustrate place designations. Winthrop, for instance, means "of the friendly village"; Endicott. "an end cottage"; and Bradford, "a broad for". The suffixes "ford", "ham", "ley", and "ton", denoting locality, are of frequent occurrence in such English names as Ashford, Bingham, Burley, and Norton. 

In the Middle Ages, the nobiliary particles 'de', borrowed from French, and 'of' often were used in England and Wales, by among many others, Simon de Montfort and Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, as well as the de Houghton, de Ros and de Mowbray families.  

I suggest that William de Harlington's family name falls into this category. 

John Smith, MSc; FCIPP

Comment:  Thanks John.  Old Walter must have got about a bit as there are two other Harlingtons... in Bedfordshire and Middlesex.

Tell us your view.

From Dearne Valley Landscape Partnership

Prehistoric and Romano-British activity in the Harlington area is indicated by field systems, tracks and settlements visible as cropmarks in the area to the south of Doncaster Road on aerial photographs. The village lies less than 1km to the south of Barnburgh, where archaeological evidence indicates extensive activity from the Neolithic period.

Place-name evidence indicates early medieval activity at Harlington, with the Old English elements ‘ling’ meaning pasture and ‘tun’ meaning a settlement. The area may have been granted to Roger de Busli, the lord of Tickhill, as part of the manor of Barnburgh following the Norman Conquest and Harlington Mill may occupy the site of a mill that was recorded in the 1086 Domesday survey. The village appears to have been a ‘ribbon development’ along a single street during the medieval period.

Harlington remained a rural village throughout the post-medieval period. New farmhouses were constructed during this period and many agricultural buildings of this date survive at sites such as Old Hall. Harlington’s commons were enclosed with those of Barnburgh in 1819.

 

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