Finding the origins of a particular surname takes much time and effort, and often generates more questions than answers. I have reproduced below a booklet by Rev. W H Hornby STEER, BA who was born in 1856 and died in 1938, setting out his research into the origins of the surname. Members of the STEER surname forum have researched the subject in depth and contributed much interesting and informative information. Contact them at STEER-L@rootsweb.com.
NOTES ON THE STURE FAMILY OF ENGLAND By Rev. W. H. HORNBY STEER B.A.
The record of the English descendants of the ancient Scandinavian family of STURE is a peaceful one, differing widely from that of the same family which remained in Sweden. While there its Sons were bleeding for the freedom of their country, here they. were leading the secluded lives of country squires. While the parent stock has died out there, its branches here, and the offshoots of these again in America, continue to flourish on the soils in which they have been transplanted.
The name is spelled in various ways, which is partly due to the phonetic mode of spelling used by early chroniclers. It is derived by some from STIUR, a wild ox.
When family names were first adopted
many people selected the animals or objects borne from the earliest
times upon their shields; and really on looking over the list
of the great Swedish and Danish families, you would imagine yourself
to be reading the catalogue of a museum of natural history rather
than that of a house of nobles. The following names will readily
be recognised, either in their original or Anglicised forms, as
existing now in England:
| Ulf - Wolf | Galt - Boar | Sture - Steer | Basse - Wild-boar | Bagge - Ram | Krabbe - Crab |
| Drake - Dragon | Stud - Bullock | Otter - | Kidd - | Oxe - | Swan - |
The founder of the STURE family in England probably came over as a leader of the Danes during their early incursions into this country. After the massacre of the Danes planned by Ethelred in 1002, we continue to find in the royal letters patent nearly the same Scandinavian names of chiefs as before, amongst others that of Styr or Stir. In the reign of Ethelred, a nobleman named Stir or Stere, the son of Ulf, made a grant of Derlington, together with other lands, to the cathedral church of St. Cuthbert, Durham. This was witnessed by the King, the Archbishop of York, and Aldhun, first Bishop of Durham (995-1017).
Ughtred, Earl of Northumberland, who was so successful against the Scots in 1006, put away his wife, who was the daughter of Aldhun, Bishop of Durham, to marry the daughter of the above-named Stir, who was a rich man, on condition that he should kill Stir's enemy, Thurbrand. Ughtred failed to do this. He afterwards put away Stir's daughter too, and married the King's daughter, AeIgifu. In the end the tables were turned, he himself being killed at the instigation of Thurbrand in the reign of Canute.
But it is not until the time of the Danish dynasty, when the throne of Cerdic was filled by Hardicanute, that there is a continuous account of the STURE family in England.
The son of Canute was unanimously chosen King at Easter-tide, 1040 ; but having destroyed his popularity by the exaction of the Danegeld, he began to revenge himself upon his enemies, alive and dead. His first step in this way was an act of senseless brutality towards the dead body of his half-brother, the late King. The dead Harold, the chronicles tell us, was dragged up and shot into a fen. Some of the officers of his household, STIR or STUR, his Major-domo or Mayor of the Palace; Eadric, his steward; Thrond, the King's own executioner, and other men of great dignity (magnae dignitatis) were sent to Westminster to dig up the body; and in their company we are surprised to find Earl Godwine and Aelfric, Archbishop of York. Westminster was neither in Godwine's earldom nor in Aelfric's diocese, so that both these chiefs of church and state seem out of place on such an occasion.
The offices of Master of the Household and Chamberlain held by Stur and Eadric in Hardicanute's palace, were not without duties to be performed either by them or by their assistants; for the King "was of nature very courteous, gentle, and liberal, specially in keeping good cheer in his house, so that he would have his table covered four times a day, and furnished with great plenty of meats and drinks, wishing that his servants and all strangers that came to his palace, might rather leave than want."
William, son of STUR the Major-domo, held land in Hants, in the time of King Edward the Confessor. At the time of the Domesday Survey, William FITZ-STUR had twenty-two manors in the Isle of Wight, on which were thirty-six villeins, fifty-six borderers, and twenty-four serfs.
Amongst the places held by him were Sopley, Calbourn, Gateombe, Whitcomb, Whippingham, Whitfield, Binstead. William, son of Stur, by a grant of King William, had two houses in Southampton free of tax. A few other adherents of the Conqueror shared a similar privilege there.
It is not a matter of surprise to find a Northman holding land in the Isle of Wight, the "frith-stool "of the Danes, their inviolable sanctuary to which they constantly retired after their depredatory visits; amongst other occasions, after ravaging Devonshire in 1001. William FITZ-OSBORNE was despatched by his kinsman the Conqueror to subjugate the island, and so became the first Lord of Wight. He partitioned the land amongst his principal followers-the FITZ-AZORS and FITZ-STURS.
It seems from the Domesday Survey that both these families held land there previously, but at that time their possessions were greatly augmented. In the Domesday Survey of Rants, Thorngate Hundred-" Hugh de Port holds Lockerley, and STERRE held it as a manor allodially of King Edward . . . The same STERRE holds one hide which is in the King's forest."
Henry I created Richard de Redvers Count of Devon, and bestowed on him the towns of Tiverton, Honiton (1100) and the honour of Plympton, together with a yearly pension of one-third of the revenue of that county. The Lordship of the Isle of Wight was also bestowed on him in 1102, which remained in his lineal descendants through a series of De Redvers and De Vernons until. the reign of Edward I.
His son Baldwin, Count of Devon and Lord of the Wight, founded Quarr Abbey in 1131. Richard de Redvers, son of Baldwin, confirmed the foundation of Quarr Abbey, one William, son of STUR, witnessing the deed.
William de Vernon, second son of Baldwin, left lands to the same Abbey in a deed dated 1206, and also witnessed by William, son of STUR. The name of William, son of STUR, occurs as a witness to grants of land in the Isle of Wight in the time of Henry IlI.
In Gatcombe Church is a cross-legged wooden effigy of a knight in complete armour under a semicircular arch of the north side of the church. The monument bears no inscription (the common people used to call it St. Rhadegund of St. Uly =" Eligius," "Eloy"), but from the style of the hauberk of mail and surcoat, which is of the time of Edward I, it probably represents one of the family of FITZ-STUR, then called de ESTUR, to whom the manor of Gatcombe (as well as those of Whitwell and Calbourne) belonged from the time of the Domesday Survey till the reign of Henry III.; when Matilda, the daughter and heiress of Baldwin Ie ESTUR, married Walter de Insula., and thus their possessions passed to the De Insula or De Lisle family. The following fact no doubt conduced to this alliance
"To Geoffrey de l'Isle (father of Walter de Insula) was given, November9th, 1224, the custody of Matilda de ESTUR, the heiress. She had been entrusted by the Bishop to the charge of the Sheriff. Her son and heir William bore his mother's name of De ESTUR (not an unusual occurrence at that time). William de ESTUR was succeeded, 20 Edward I., by his brother and heir Galfrid de Insula. The family name remained for a time in the Isle of Wight, for amongst "The names of the nobles etc. of Hampshire, temp. Henry VII.," is that of Sir Bawdewyn ESTURE, who bore as arms, "ar a cherry-tree proper." There is no mention, however, of this family in the visitation of 1575.
Considerable intercourse must have taken place between the Isle of Wight and Devon, by reason of the Earl of Devon being Lord of Wight, and holding considerable possessions in both places. A branch of the STURs of the Isle of Wight appears to have settled in Devon about the time when the estates passed to the de Lisles through the heiress Matilda. The STURs probably migrated to Devon through the above influence; for in 1269 died Roger le STUR, who held land in the Manor of Honiton, under Baldwin de .l'Isle, the Earl of Devon and Lord of Wight of that day. The union of these titles in the De Redvers family for so long a period may account for the presence of several families in both Devon and the Isle of Wight. It is curious that numerous names of manors and farms too are common to both.
A westward migration of the family is evidenced by the name of William de STURE in the intermediate county of Dorset in the time of Edward I. In a Lay Subsidy Roll of the county of Devon for 1 Edward III (1327) occur the names of Robertus STURRA, a burgess of. "Honetone," Richard STUR, in the hundred of Budleigh East and John STUR in the Hundred of Ermyngton.
The Devonshire branch of STUR is further identified with the STURs of Wight by the arms blazoned on an ancient roll as borne by STURIE (Swedish sound of STURE) of Buckley, near Honiton, viz. "ar., a cherry-tree proper;" the same as those of Sir Bawdewyn ESTURE of the Island.
The Stures were connected with Exeter as early as 1356. The following extract from the rental of St. Sidwell's parish bears the above date, and is inserted in a Cartulary of St. John's Hospital, Exeter:
"John, the son of John STUER, and his heirs lawfully begotten, are bound to maintain the yearly obit of Roger, once Vicar of Heavitree, of Robert BROWN and his wife Jane, of William JEBB and Cicely his wife, of Nicholas BROWN and his wife Isabella, in consideration of a tenement next to St. John's Hospital, and of two fields called Thorn Park and Little Park, and to provide twelve wax lights of the weight of four pounds to be used in the chancel of the said church."
The following letter refers to the siege of Exeter by the Cornish rebels, in 1549, which lasted from July 2nd to August 6th, when the King's troops under Sir Peter CAREW, Lords Russell and Grey, were victorious, but not before 4,000 of these religious insurgents had perished. Sir Peter CAREW, who writes to "lovinge ffriendes," the mayor, and his brethren, offering the services of Mr. STURE, a lawyer, to be to them a continual counsellor, was at that time in military charge of the city
"After my right hartie comendacons.
Desiringe the furtheraunce of good and cercumspecte gouvernaunce
of yor Citie I have according to my last communycacon with you
in your Counsell Chambre moved Mr. STURE to serve you as a continuall
counsailot the comoditie whereof it may be afiirmed wilbe as much
o yot honesties as ever thinge that ye procured for thadvauncement
of yot sealfes or the Citie, ffor even as ys yor Citie be ruled
by knowledge men will reporte and accompte you wurthie the aucthoritie
that ye inioye.
So if it be founde contrarie, You maie assure yor selfes it will
be both thought and spoken that yo have desired to make your Clue
a cauntie and thenlargement of yor liberties under a pretence
to sunder good ordre, and do not in any parte accomplishe the
same.
"By this man beinge both of honestie and larninge you may
atteine the good reporte ot thone and avoide the reproche of thother.
And even as his beinge amonge you shall be muche to yo' furtheraunce,
so if you do not liberaiiie see to his paines it can not be but
much to his hinderaunce, ffar he shall not onely be driven to
leave his house where he is settled but also leave the practice
of the common lawe in matiers abrode, which you may gesse is no
speciall abatement of his living. That I maie therefore give him
an answere I shall desire to be advertised from you what you mynde
to give him to the countervailing of his charges. And thereupon
will I wurke for yor comoditie as I can best desire. And thus
ffare you right hartelie well, fyom Moliuns Oterie the iiijth
of June 1550.
~Yor assured frend,
"P. CAREW.
"[Endorsed) To my lovinge ffriendes the Mayor of Exceter
and his Bretherens."
Mr. STURE was Recorder of Exeter four years later, 1554. His arms are in the Guildhall "or (now argent), a star of eight points sable." From Izacke's Remarkable Antiquities of tile City of Exeter, we learn that John WEEKS, Esquire, elected the first Recorder of this City, a8 Edward Ill., 1354, had a Pension of three pounds per annum allowed him. The fourteenth Recorder being "Edmond STUER, Esquire, 2 Mariee, 1554." He held the office during four years.
About a century later the daughter and heiress of Frederick STUER, of Exeter, married John DEEBLE, of Wolsdon, ancestor of the Cornish family of Boger.
In the reign of Henry VIII the STURE family held possession of the Manor of Diptford. "There were 39 hydes in the hundred of Dippeforde in the days when the Housecarls collected the Danègeld ;" but it is now included in the hundred of Stanborough. The Hundred Roll shows that the lords of this manor exercised the power of inflicting capital punishment. By a grant of Henry 1111 it became the property of Nicholas Lord Macis, or Mules, and descended from him to the families of BOTTREAUX and HUNGERFORD.
The family of St. Lo, the principal branch of which was seated at Newton St. Laud or St. Lo, Somerset, flourished there till 1400, when the heiress married Lord Bottreaux. It may here be noticed that the arms of STURE as given in the Heralds' Visitations of Devon, 1564 and 1620, are the same as those borne by St. Lo - " ar., a bend sable, over alt a label of three points gules."
Whether the STUREs came into these estates through any connection by marriage with the HUNGERFORDs (who became possessed of the property through marriage with Margaret BOTTREAUX, heiress of William, Baron BOTTREAUX is not known.
Henry STURE, the first of the name who owned the property, died in 1519. He was succeeded by several generations which intermarried with the families of DARKE, Sir Robert DENNIS of Holcombe Burnell, FORTESCUE of Wood, FULFORD, Hugh FOUNTAYNE of East Bawcombe (whose arms, impaled with those of his wife Margery STURE, are carved on a handsome wooden screen in Ugborough Church), GILES of Bowden, HALSE of Efford, SAVERY of Marley, WISE of Totnes, and PARNELL of Grimston.
Tristram STURE or STEER, died seized of the Manors of Diptford and Ashwell in 1616. He married a daughter of Sir Richard HAWKINS (who lived at Poole, in the parish of Sherford, in the time of James I.), the celebrated naval officer; famous son of a more famous father - Sir John HAWKINS. Thus these manors were held by the STUREs from or before the reign of Henry VIII. till the time of William III., when the Manor and Rectory of Diptford, the mansion-house and farm called Maridge (which had once been a religious house) in the parish of Ugborough, the house and farm called Bradleigh in Diptford and North Huish, and divers other farms in the above parishes, were sold in 1699 by Edmund STURE, late of Maridge.
The name STURE became fixed in the present anglicised form, STEER, almost universally throughout Devon about 1750; though these two ways of spelling it had been used for a century or more before this, possibly owing to sture being a West country word for bullock or steer. There is a yeoman family still bearing the name of STURE in a remote part of Devon (East Prawle).
Amongst the families in England at present bearing this name are the STEERs of Yorkshire and Derbyshire, evidently descended from STERR or STERRE of Yorkshire, and Levenot STERRE of Bradeston, Derbyshire, both of whom are mentioned in the Domesday Survey of those counties; and these again descended from STUR, the son of Ulf, time of Ethelred II mentioned above.
A family of the name of STEER is found in Lincolnshire, where a Danish chief named STUR held land and possessed the right of administering justice on his estate, together with other privileges belonging to noblemen.
It is stated that the Surrey family of STEERE lived at Jayes, their present seat, at the time of the Conquest.
The names HESTER, ASTOR, STOWER, STEER are derived from the old forms STUR and ESTUR.
The interests of the Devon family of STURE or STEER have always been associated with land in the county. Philip STEER (second son of Henry STURE, of Hendham, Woodleigh) born 1751, owned the estate of Bickley, in the parish of Halwell. He married Mary, daughter of Richard PAIGE, of Harleston. His grandson, the late Philip STEER, of Apsley House, Whitchurch, Herefordshire, married (1853) Emma, elder daughter and co-heiress of the Rev. William HARRISON M.A., of Chester, by whom he had a daughter and two sons, who are the present owners of the estates of Borough and Halstow, South Devon, and Cilgwyn in Montgomeryshire.
A branch of this Devon family is settled
in America. The blood of the Viking ancestry showed itself in
the enterprise and genius of Henry STEER, grandson of the above
Henry STURE, who crossed the Atlantic in 1824, and founded the
eminent ship-building firm in New York of this name.
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