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FERRIER,
a surname evidently derived from farrier, a professor of the veterinary
art. In the reign of Alexander the Second a family of this name lived in
Tranent in Haddingtonshire, whose seal of arms was appended to an
alienation of some lands in that locality to the family of Seton, on which
was a shield charged with three horse shoes. The Ferriers were a
considerable family in England, (Nisbet’s Heraldry, vol. i. p.
439,) and there were several distinguished persons of the name in France.
The surname is originally Norman, and is one of the many derived from the
working in iron, which is not confined to any country. Among the Norman
Knights who came into England with William the Conqueror, was one named
Henry Ferrieres, from Ferriers or Ferrieres, a small town of Gastinois in
France. He bore for his arms six horse shoes, and his descendants of the
same surname possess the estate of Baddesley Clinton, Warwickshirel
The English
surnames of Ferrars, Ferrers, Ferris, Ferrey, Fearon, Farren, and Farrant
have the same derivation.
The word Ferrier
may also have been used for a ferryman, and thus become a surname.
Of the eminent
Scottish novelist, Miss Susan Edmonstone Ferrier, authoress of ‘Marriage,’
a memoir will be found in the supplement to this work. |
