The surname Devias is derived from a place-name, but from one outside
Lancashire. It is probably from the Herefordshire place name Ewyas. In
Lancashire the surname appears to have belonged originally to a single
family, who were landowners of moderate importance, and to have
ramified in some parts of the county until it became by the 17th century
quite numerous in certain parishes. The relatively remote location of the
place name from which the surname is derived, and the rarity of the
surname itself during the Middle Ages, in England as a whole, makes it
improbable that it was brought into Lancashire by migrants who did not
belong to the landed family in question.

The first of the Devias family to hold land in Lancashire was John
Devias or de Euwyas, who married a daughter, and co-heir, of William
de Samlesbury, and with her obtained lands at Samlesbury, and at
Breightmet and Harwood (both in Bolton le Moors parish) about 1259.
John Devias was the son of a Yorkshire knight, who had lands in that
county and in Lincolnshire. John was succeeded, about 1309, by his
son, Nicholas. Nicholas had male heirs, but he settled his lands at
Samlesbury on a daughter and her husband, one of the Southeworth or
Southworth family. In this way the brief history of the Devias family as
major landowners in Lancashire came to an end. Younger sons of
both John and Nicholas Devias, however, held land in the county.
Richard Devias, who witnessed a charter concerning Formby about
1280, and who was holding land there about 1310, and at Harwood in
1278, was probably a son of John Devias, who is known to have had a
son named Richard. It is perhaps unlikely, on chronological grounds,
that he was the same person as the Richard Devyas who was holding
land at Samlesbury in 1336, though it is not impossible. A younger of
John Devias, another John, obtained land at Samlesbury, and was
holding it in 1336. His holding appears to have been quite small.
Alexander Devias, who was holding land at the same place in the
1330s, was probably another son of John Devias. John Devias is also
known to have had a son named William, who was probably the william
Devias, with land at Samlesbury in the early 14th century. A son of
Nicholas Devias, Thomas Devias, was in possession of a rent charge
from lands at Samlesbury in 1366.

Two members of the Devias family were still holding lands at
Samlesbury in 1379, though they do not seen to have been persons of
any particular wealth.

Though the Devias family were large landholders in Lancashire for but
two generations, a surprising number of younger sons had thus
established themselves with land in the county, though so far as can be
seen, none of their holdings was at all large.
It has not been possible to trace the descent of the Devias family in
Lancashire after the 14th century, but the name survived in the county
and multiplied in some areas. At Huyton in south-east Lancashire the
surname became numerous during the 16th and 17th centuries. It is
possible that the presence of the surname at Huyton may be linked with
the earlier possession of land at Formby, not far away, by Richard
Devias, but no connected pedigree can be traced. During the 16th and
17th centuries the surname appears at Manchester, where it became
fairly common, though much less numerous than some other surnames
there. Manchester would be a town which would draw in population
from the villages in surrounding areas, like Samlesbury or Harwood.
During the 16th and 17th centuries there are other, scattered, instances
o f the name in south Lancashire, mostly not far from manchester. there
are also a few examples of the name from further north in the county. At
Manchester and some other places, the surname appears in the form
Devis. This may at times have been assimilated to Davis. Devias has
never become so common in Lancashire as have some other surnames,
which were those of important landowning families in the county,
though it did become numerous in one area. What is significant about
this case is that a family, not known to exist in the county before the late
13th century, rapidly established itself, in the course of two generations,
with various junior branches holding lands in Lancashire and that this
enabled the surname to survive. The family's presence in the county as
large landowners was transitory, but it left its mark on the local
surnames.