The Families of Tom and Jana (née Hawes) Robertson:Information about Gerard Gatland
Gerard Gatland (b. Abt. 1504, d. date unknown)
Notes for Gerard Gatland:
Notes from the research of Larry B. Gatlin e-mailed November 2003:
The Gatland family has been around the area of Cuckfield, Sussex, England since the late 1200's acc. to one researcher who has contacts in the area.In 1990, I consulted a genealogical research firm in Canterbury, Kent, England ,called Achievements LTD.The researcher, Mr. Andrew Ross, told me he believed the name to refer to people who live in "gated or enclosed land", indicating agrarian origins for the nameHe said the name may have other origins but he felt this was the most likely.
I have read that land in England was not much fenced or enclosed until after the Norman Conquest of 1066.Another interpretation of the name may refer to people who live near enclosed land, a location which may have been unusual enough to raise comment and to become a way of identifying a family.
Mr. Ross the researcher also stated that the name is mainly found in the southeastern sector of England, spreading from the north midlands county of Stafford southeastward through Nottinghamshire,Norfolk, Suffolk, into the home counties around London.It's hard to say where the name originated, possibly in several locations at once when the ordinary classes of the English began to take surnames because of population growth and for easier identification of individuals.
Some modern researchers believe the name originates in County Sussex south of London in the environs of the village of Cuckfield.Certainly it has been associated with the area since the late 13th century.
The spelling Gatlin or Gatling does not find its way into written records in England until the early 1700's.Probably the name came to be spelled the way it was pronounced, sometimes dropping the final "d" in a more relaxed pronunciation, or adding the "g"where local dialect tends to add a "g" to a soft "n" ending as in county Staffordshire.The colloquial spelling of the name seems to have caught on in VA earlier than in England.
More About Gerard Gatland and Anne:
Marriage: Abt. 1528, Pilsty, Cuckfield, Sussex.
Children of Gerard Gatland and Anne are:
- +Gerard Gatland, b. Abt. 1540, Pilsty, Cuckfield Sussex406, d. Bef. April 23, 1628406.