Recorded in the spellings of Mobley, Moberley, Mobberley,
Moberly, this is a dialectal locational surname from either the
town of Mobberley in Cheshire, or from some now 'lost' medieval
site called 'Moberleah' or similar. The name translates as 'the
clearing (leah) with the assembly mound (gemot-beorg)' from the pre
7th century Olde English and possibly Norse-Viking of the same
period. The place is first recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as
'Motburlege' and later in the year 1260 as 'Modberleg'. Local
accents being extremely 'thick' and spelling not being a strong
point in any case, most early recordings of both place names and
subsequent surnames often shown wide differences, even in the same
rolls prepared by the same monk or cleric. In this case we have
some very early recordings of the surname, and given the meaning of
the name this is not surprising, as the village was a known
administrative center, and the lord of the manor, a person of
considerable importance. This was the man shown below, whilst Ralph
de Modberleg, recorded in the Assize Rolls of Cheshire in the year
1260, was a judge. Margerry Mobberleye was recorded in Prestbury,
Cheshire, in 1568, whilst Richard Mobley married Jane Adams at St
Georges chapel, Hanover Square, London, in 1756. The first recorded
spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Patrick de
Moberleia, which was dated 1190, the Early Charter rolls of the
county of East Cheshire, during the reign of King Richard 1st,
known as 'The lionheart', 1189 - 1199. Surnames became necessary
when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was
known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every
country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing
variants of the original spelling.
