Who was the first Eaves/Eves? The first person to have a "surname" to which we can trace back is Harold de Ewyas, son of Ralph "The Timid" - the latter being the nephew of Edward the Confessor. Although Ralph's parents were Dreux de Mantes and Goda (Edward the Confessor's sister), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes Ralph as being English - presumably because he was born in Norfolk. Dreux was one of Edward's Norman chums who he brought over with him when he came to the throne. At some point Ralph was the Earl of Essex, but latterly he was Earl of Hereford. He earned the subriquet "Timid" from an episode where he was defeated by the Welsh (led by Gruffyd ap Llewelyn) in 1055.

Until around 1087 Harold was known as "Harold Fitzralph". There is record of him giving the church at Bures St Mary in Suffolk to Caen Abbey in 1075 [149K]. (There is a slight possibility that the Fitzralph mentioned was Harold's elder brother Ralph de Guarder or perhaps another, as yet, untraced sibling. However, it is felt this is unlikely because, the same year, this Ralph was engaged with his brother-in-law, Roger Fitz-Osbern, in an abhortive rebellion to topple William the Conqueror.)

The word Ewyas is Welsh meaning "sheep area" and it is clear that this name has been corrupted over the years to finally become Eaves or Eves during the latter part of the C17th. For a selection of Eaves/Eves spelling variants, see the background to the opening page of "Origins". There are, no doubt, many other spellings that can be traced back to "de Ewyas".

There are, today, still two areas in Herefordshire with the Ewyas name: Ewyas Harold and Ewyas Lacy. The castle at Ewyas Harold was one of the first to be built by a Norman in England. As it was constructed of timber, nothing remains of it today except the motte. We do know, though, that there was a chapel in the castle dedicated to St Nicholas. The de Lacys, who came from Lassy in Calvados, were given lands, adjoining the Ewyas Harold holding, by William the Conqueror. The de Lacys' holding was much the larger of the two. Both families are closely connected and spent much time fighting the Welsh in the C11th.

The second generation of de Ewyas was Robert. He was a very warlike man and active on the Welsh Marches. He founded the Abbey at Dore near to Ewyas Harold and was buried there. The illustration of his tomb is probably the oldest we have that depicts an Eaves.

Robert had a son who he also named Robert. Robert II only had a daughter and the lands subsequently fell into the de Tregoz family after Sybilla de Ewyas, Robert II's heiress, had married Robert de Tregoz.

The siblings of Robert I de Ewyas were Roger, John, Alexander and William. We know John had children Ralph and William. Robert II de Ewyas had siblings Richard, William and Herbert.

In early times, the family appears to have moved into Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire, Kent and, to a smaller extent, other counties. The family emerged strongly in Lancashire where there are many records in existance. Inter alia, there is record of the Eyves of Fishwick Hall. These Eyves were closely associated with the de Southworths and Samlesbury Hall.

The Eyves of Fishwick’s loyalty to Roman Catholicism was such that, by the middle of the C17th, most of their possessions had been confiscated for recusancy. However, the various families have, over the years, substantially increased in number (especially in Lancashire); but many of them lived lives as farmers in very reduced circumstances. Some Eaves/Eves emigrated to America; notably Jon (or John) Eves who went to Virginia, arriving in 1636 at Lyn Haven. Unfortunately, we have not yet established where this Jon/John Eves came from in England.

However, it can be said that the descendants of the original de Ewyas family have, over the last 950 years, spread out around the United Kingdom and to many other parts of the world. They now probably total over 12,000 in number.

Because of the de Ewyases aristocratic Norman origins, it is possible to trace their ancestry back to Rollo and earlier. They also descended from great English Kings such as Alfred The Great. In common with many other great families then, a line can be traced back to Charlemagne.

Another interpretation of the derivation of Eaves/Eves as a surname is that it comes from the OE "efes" meaning "dweller on the edge of a wood or hill". There are numerous names of places and buildings that have the word Eaves in them. However, what may have happened is that, following the efforts of Norman scribes who wrote Ewyas as Eues (the French language has difficulty with "w"), the name Eves or Eaves was finally adopted. In Lancashire Some examples of "edge places" are:

Eaves Hall, West Bradford
Woodhouse Eaves
Bashall Eaves
The Plough at Eaves
Eaves Farm
Eversholt Street in London (presumably, from the OE "efes holt",
meaning "edge of the wood")
Teffont Evias in Wiltshire, however, was one of Robert de Ewyas' possessions and is not an "edge place"!

A tongue-in-cheek view of the apparent "rebranding" of Eyves/Ewes/ Eues etc to Eaves/Eves in the C17th might be that the Eaves family, formerly of some note, had now been marginalised by the effects of the confiscation of its property (because they were recusants) and had been forced to live precariously, both geographically and in the survival sense, "on the edge". Certainly, post Civil War, Eues, as a name, seems largely to have evolved into either Eves or Eaves.

Evesham, which looks as though it might be an "edge" or Eues place, actually derives its name from a visionary swineherd called Eofor ("Eofor" is OE for boar, so that described his occupation). This is a little confusing when one considers the geographical closeness of Ewyas Harold to Evesham.