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In earlier blog posts I have discussed the origins of the Nurse name, and provided biographies of “famous” people with the name Nurse or its etymological cousin Norris.  In this post, I begin to describe the results of my research into my own Nurse ancestors.

It appears that my Nurse family ancestors settled in the Hanham Abbots area of Hanham towards the end of the eighteenth century, as there is no record of the family living in the parish of Hanham before that time.  According to Wikipaedia, “Hanham is a village near Bristol, England, situated on the A431 between Bristol,Bath and Keynsham”.

Rebecca Nurse is probably the most (in)famous person to carry the surname Nurse. She emigrated to New England soon after the Pilgrim Fathers with her sisters, and with her sisters was charge in the famous withcraft delusions of the laste 17th century in Salem, Massachussets.

Shortly after William the Conqueror captured England he granted most of the lands that had been in the hands of English nobility to his followers, as he had done for William de Noers. 

He also ordered twenty years later, in 1085, that a census be taken of all his newly acquired lands. It was the most extensive census that had ever been taken of any lands and remains to this day one of the most complete records of its kind. The census took about a year to complete.

Edward Norris was an English puritan who emmigrated to New England soon after the Pilgrim Fathers. He became one of the early pastor's of First Salem Church in Salem, Massachussets, in the community that experienced the witchcraft delusion that took many innocent lives.

Sir Henry Norris was an English courtier who was Groom of the Stool in the privy chamber of Henry VIII. Apparently he as a good friend of Henry's but he was caught up in the "investigations" of the adultery of Queen Anne Boleyne that ultimately led to his execution as a traitor and adulterer.

While there is no evidence to suggest any connection to my ancestors, it is interesting to look at some of the people through the ages who have carried the name Noers, Norreys, Norris or Nurse.

I will start with William de Noers, Steward of King William I (The Conqueror). It is possible that William de Noers was a descendant of Gilbert de Noyers.