944 Global Bensley Family Members

Bensley Family History

Long before William the Conqueror fought his way across England, the personal name of "Bill" or "Billa" was popular with the Olde English. The name would seem to be a form of "bel", meaning "fire", and it may originally have been given as a descriptive nickname to one who cleared his land by burning. In the 1086 Domesday Book the hamlet of "Bilnei" which translates as, "the place of Bill", was recorded in the county of Warwick. In the Curia Regis Rolls of 1189, in the first year of Richard 1, the Lionheart, a transposition took place, the spelling being recorded as "Binlea", a form which has been effectively maintained ever since.