WYAMURUS DE WHALLEY

Wyamarus of Normandy France   

The First Whaley 1040 - 1100

The earliest person with the surname Whalley was a Norman named Wyamarus. The Normans were originally from Scandinavia (Norsemen) who conquered and settled Normandy in France. William, king of the Normans, invaded and conquered England, and was thereafter called William the Conqueror. Wyamarus was Williams’s standard bearer at the Battle of Hastings and was knighted and awarded the lands of Wapentake of Blackburn around Whalley, Lancaster County in 1067 for his services in that battle. He then became known as Wyamarus de Walley or Wyamarus Whalley.

Wyamarus was said to have been a huge man, 6 feet 7 inches in his stocking feet. He swung the largest battle axe in England and is said to have cut a man cleanly in two in the Battle of Hastings.

The lineage of Wyamarus Whalley is recorded for at least 10 generations and the Whalley name was spread throughout England. In England having an ancestor who came over with William the Conqueror is akin to having been descended from the Mayflower colonists in the United States.