Pictured above is Alex Tilley, holding his most famous innovation, the Tilley hat. I don’t stoop to unsought testimonials but, having been the happy owner of a Tilley hat for more than 25 years, a hat I still wear when venturing into the ingrate outdoors, I can personally recommend any genuine Tilley garment. I own hiking shorts by Tilley that are indestructible. Crazed grannies rushing to disembowel me with pickle forks (grannies angered by my collecting raunchy Canadian sayings) have been safely deflected from my person by those sturdy hiking shorts. As you may imagine then, this time we trace the origins of Tilley, a surname prominent in Canadian history and commerce. Among Canadians who have borne the name are: Alexander Tilley 1938– Inventive Canadian designer of outdoor and travel clothing and originator of the Tilley hat
Leonard Percy de Wolfe Tilley 1870–1947 The New Brunswick lawyer and politician was premier of the province from 1933 to 1935. He was the son of the Father of Confederation listed next. Sir Samuel Leonard Tilley 1818–1896 Born at Gagetown, New Brunswick, he began in the drugstore business and rose to political fame as a staunch advocate of New Brunswick’s inclusion in Confederation. He was Macdonald’s politically astute point man in the province and held many cabinet portfolios in both Macdonald governments.
The origins of Tilley as an ancient Franco-British surname are complex. The earliest form of the name appears as Ralph de Tilio in the Domesday Book of the English county of Derbyshire in AD 1086. This man was of Norman-French extraction, and a recent arrival from France — remember the Norman Conquest of 1066 a few years before. The founding ancestor of this family took his name from the place he lived in France. There are five little towns in northern France that may be the locality of origin: Tilly-sur-Seulles in Calvados, Tilly in Eure, Tilly in Seine-et-Oise, one in Meuse, and one in the Pas-de-Calais. Only a rigorous genealogical search of French registry documents could determine the precise locative origin of the family. The best-known French occurrence of the name is in the title of a magnificent French estate in the Champagne-Ardenne region east of Paris. Le Château de la Motte-Tilly was in feudal times the site of a large defensive earthwork, known in English by its French name, motte. How the Word Motte & The Old Bailey Connect A motte in medieval parlance was a man-made berm, a mound of packed earth, flat on top, often surmounted by a fort or castle. In English the word motte is best known in the phrase from historical architectural terminology, a motte-and-bailey castle, a type of fort built by the Norman conquerors of England after 1066. The fort sat atop an earthen mound ringed by an outer defensive wall called a bailey. The famous site of London's Central Criminal Court, The Old Bailey, once stood in the old bailey or court of the London city wall between Lud Gate and New Gate. Feudal records in France first record the name de la Motte-Tilly in 1369. This chateau, pictured below, may still be visited today.
This Norman Tilley has many spelling forms both in England and in France , among which are: Tillie, Tilly, Tiley, Tily, Tylee, Tyley, Tilhet, Thillet, and Thiellet! Why is this particular name and its variants so widespread over northern France? Because it belonged to a Teutonic tribe who controlled much of the area long before the Roman conquest of northern Gaul. The area was known to Gallo-Romans as Tilliacum, a term based on the tribe’s name in Old Germanic Tielo, short for *Theod-ilo, and that word contains a Germanic root word theod ‘the people.’ Therefore, one semantic path of the surname Tilley leads all the way back to a root at least two thousand years old. But two other possible meanings of the surname are detailed below. In the 30 Years War there was heroic Graf von Tilly. Here are three Wikipedia entries about Graf von Tilly: 1. “Johann Tserclaes von Tilly ( 1559 -1632) was a mercenary General who commanded the Imperial and Holy Roman Empire’s forces in the 30 Years War, he had a string of important victories against the Bohemians, Germans and later the Danish, but was then defeated by Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. Along with Duke Albrecht von Wallenstein of Friedland and Mecklenburg, he was one the chief commanders of the Holy Roman Empire’s forces.” 2. “The Thirty Years War was fought between the years 1618 and 1648, principally on the territory of today’s Germany, but also involving most of the major continental powers. It occurred for a number of reasons. Although it was from its outset a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics, the self-preservation of the Habsburg dynasty was also a central motive.” 3. “…The Spanish sent an army from Brussels under Ambrosio Spinola to support the Emperor, and the Spanish ambassador in Vienna, Don Inigo Onate, persuaded Protestant Saxony to intervene against Bohemia in exchange for control over Lusatia. The Saxons invaded, and the Spanish army in the West prevented the Protestant Union’s forces from assisting. Onate conspired to transfer the electoral title from the Palatinate to the Duke of Bavaria in exchange for his support and that of the Catholic League. Under the command of General Tilly, the Catholic League army (which included René Descartes in its ranks) pacified Upper Austria, while the Emperor’s forces pacified Lower Austria; united, the two moved north into Bohemia. Ferdinand II decisively defeated Frederick V at the Battle of White Mountain, near Prague on 8 November 1620. In addition to making it Catholic, Bohemia would remain in Habsburg hands for three hundred years.” 2 More Tilley Meanings Is that it then, for putative Tilley origins? Unfortunately no. Several hundred years later in England, Tilley was coined again as a new matronymic surname based on the nickname of an ancestral mother. Till and Tilly were pet forms of Matilda. Some English Tilleys also stem from Middle English tilie ‘one who tills the fields,’ a forebear who was a farmer. Put that in your Tilley hat and wear it with pride!
© 2006 William Gordon Casselman
Hundreds of links to more of my word entries are available below.
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