Re: Ayl-ward = "noble guardian" in Old Saxon
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In reply to:
Ayl-ward = "noble guardian" in Old Saxon
richard brezet 8/28/06
Hi,
Here is part of the history of the Aylward family that I got from an article published around 1980 in a newspaper from Waterford.
AYLWARD
Saxon: AEDHELWEARD (NOBLE PROTECTOR)
IRISH Aiglehrt
The original home of the family, was to the east of Waterford, in the parish of Faithlegg, where the first of the Aylwards was granted a considerable estate by King Henry II. His descendants held Faithlegg for nearly five hundred years, until like so many other great Irish families, they were sent by Crowwell “to hell or Connaught”.
As the Aylwards came over to Ireland with Henry II, it is usually assumed that they were a Norman family. Actually, they were Saxon in origin, and they had been in England for centuries before the normans arrived there. The name“Aylward” comes from the saxon “Aedhelweard” and means “Noble Protector”.It was quite a common christian name in saxon England.As a surname, it is still occasionally met with over there.
The Irish Aylwards are descended from a Bristol merchand and ship-owner named Aylward Juvenis (Aylward the counger), who may well have provided King Henry II with some of the ships that took him to Ireland in 1121. In addition to his Irish descendants, he left sons who succeded to his business in Bristol.The Bristol Aylwards took a leading part in the life of their city and they must have been important people, for Bristol was at that time, second only to London in importance.One of them, Roger Aylward was one of the merchants whose job it was to import wines for use at the King’s table.His brother Richard was mayor of Bristol in 1239-40.There was an Aylward Street and an Aylward gate named after the family in Bristol.The Bristol Aylward died out with the death of John Aylward, merchand and ship-owner in 1427.
It was at the Great Council of Oxford in 1177 that Henry II granted Faithlegg to Aylward Juvenis.He made several grants of land in Ireland to his chief followers at this council, including the grant of County Waterford to Robert le Poer, ancestor of the Powers, who was the king’s marshal.Aylward must have been an important man to be included in such exalted compagny.