Where does de merclesden originate?

Answer 1

The origin of the name seems to have been due to its geographical position and to be as follows viz,-- According to the Anglo-Saxon dictionary --- Merccels or Miccels is a derivative from "Mearc" meaning a limit, a boundary ( of a Place), a border. Mearc is the same word as Marche, indicating the boundary or frontier of a districts as " the Marshes of Wales " and in Scotland at the present day they speak of adjacent estates as marching side by side : the syllable "den" stands for "dene" or"dean" meaning a valley, (as in Jesmond Dene, the public gardens at Newcastle upon tyne and the Dean Cemetery at Edinburgh ),Now both Great and Little Merclesden stand at the head of boundary valleys between Lancashire and Yorkshire and there can be little doubt that these townships got their name of " Mercles-den(e) from this fact , There is another Marsden village partly in the manor of Huddersfieldand partly in the monor ofAlmondbury, co. Yorkshire. It is also aborder township just over the boundary on the Yorkshire side. and at the head of the Marsden ( in Yorkshire ) valley is in Marche Hill, still closer to the boundary between the two counties. Doctor William Farrer , D,Lit,F.S.A. In his "court rolls of the Honor of Clitheroe " 1897, P,227 note, Suggests another derivation of the name, he says, "Aske Marsden, a name sometimes used for Great "Marsden: Ask or hask, derived from the Icelandic or Danish Harsk,"is the equivalent of our word harch, and is descriptive of the rough "and sour land lying in the north and north west sides of this "township," "Marsden or Merclesden as it was anciently written - seems to be " derived through the Icelandic from the Gothic "Margel" I,e., Merl, : the material anciently used for enriching arable land, certainly marl :pits used to abound in this and the adjoining townships and merled :earth (I.e., merled land) was a name Frequently applied to farmholds : throughout east Lancashire," Marsden was a ville or township within the manor of Colne and was probably an encroachment within theBoundaries of the original forest ofTrawden made very shortly after the time of the Norman Conquest. The name has many variants of spelling according to idea of the person who made the record at the time, From the method of pronouncing the vowels, etc. In different districts: thus we have Merclesden, Merlesden, Mersden, Marsfden, Marston, Merston, Merstyn, Marscheden, Mersceden, Marshden, Marsdin, etc.

Source: A History Of The Marsden Family.

Source:http://www.freewebs.com/marsdens/Book/book.htm#step3