SPELLING VARIATIONS OF MACE & MASSEY RECOGNIZED IN ENGLAND
SPELLING VARIATIONS OF MACE & MASSEY RECOGNIZED IN ENGLAND
Gloria,
It is really impossible to say that the MACE surname was isolated to one County in England while the MACE variants of MAYS or MAYSE were isolated to another. The fact is that these spelling variations for MACE are largely attributed to literacy, or lack thereof, and the scribes ability to properly phoneticize the surname and spell it correctly, or in accordance with some standardized fashion.
The National Burial Index of England and Wales provides only the following variants in spelling for the surname MACE for individuals born between 1550 and 2000 AD..
MACE
MAIS
MAISE
MAISSE
MAIZE
MAYS
MAYSE
MAZE
MAZSE
MAIS
From the period 1550 to about 1850 the largest concentration of individuals with any of the above variants were located mostly in Gloucester to the south west, and in in Cambridgeshire, Northhampton, Huntingdonshire, Bedfordshire, Suffolk, and Norfolk. There also were a few with the surname MACE buried in Durham and Yorkshire North Riding.
During the period of 1850 to 2000 the clusters of this surname are found almost exclusively in the south and east of England in Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Gloucester Counties.
National Burial Index (NBI) for England and Wales
http://www.ffhs.org.uk/General/Projects/NBI.htmhttp://www.ffhs.org.uk/General/Projects/NBI.htm
The surnames MAY and MESSE and even MAUZY may be variants seen in America but they apparently are not observed in England as associated with either MACE or MASSEY..
In England the MASSEY surname and all it variants is distributed much differently than the MACE surname. It would appear from the geographical distribution that the MASSEY surname represents a completely different clan.During the period 1550 to 1850 the MASSEY surname and its variants are seen clustered primarily in Yorkshire (North, East and West) Riding, Cheshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Wiltshire, Surrey, Buckinghamshire and a few in Lincolnshire. Between 1850 and 2000 the surname MASSEY and its variants are a little more widely distributed, primarily into LICOLNCHIRE, but the majority still remain in Shropshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. There also appears to be a cluster in Wales at Glamorgan and another in Buckinghamshire.
The NBI lists the following variants for the surname MASSEY:
MASSEY
MASSIE
MASEY
MACEY
MACIE
MACY
MASEE
MASY
MAZEY
National Burial Index (NBI) for England and Wales
http://www.ffhs.org.uk/General/Projects/NBI.htmhttp://www.ffhs.org.uk/General/Projects/NBI.htm
The NBI database allows one to project onto a map of England the parishes in England where individuals of a certain surname were buried and therefore plot where the surname clustered are for any given time span in history.
During the 17th and 18th centuries in Dorchester Co., MD the MACE surname was pretty much standardized and consistently spelled as MACE in all the Prerogative Court records of that era. I have many of those records and never recall seeing the descendants of Nicholas Mace spell it any other way.
MACE GENEALOGY FOR THE DESCENDANTS OF NICHOLAS MACE (c.1642 – c.1693)
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~kallenbach/DocumentM.htmhttp://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~kallenbach/DocumentM.htm