Hi Hal
As you are probably aware you will have consider all the variants that
sound similar to HESTERLY. The spelling was very variable in past centuries
and if an illiterate migrated his unfamiliar name would be recorded as it
sounded.
Possible variants would be Hester/Ester/Easter-ly/lea/lee/leigh/lye.
The element -ly suggests that the name is derived from one of the many
places named Lea, Lee, Leigh, Lye from the Old English 'leah' meaning 'an
open place in a wood, a glade' (probably not a cleared place but naturally
open).
The only place-names I can find beginning with Hester are Hester's Way, a
suburb of Cheltenham, which I suspect is of recent origin, and Hestercombe,
Somerset.
The entry in 'The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-names' by
Eilert Ekwall [Oxford University Press 1980] states:-
Hestercombe, Somerset [Hegsteldescumb 854 BCS p476, Hestercumba 1155-8
(1334) Ch]. 'The (narrow) valley of the haegsteald.' Old English
'haegsteald' or 'hagusteald' means 'warrior, bachelor' but must
once have
been used in the same sense as Old High German 'hagustalt', i.e. 'owner of
a haga or enclosure', a younger son who had no share in the village, but
had to take up a holding for himself outside. The Old German 'hagustalt'
formed a definite class in the community. Cf. Hexham, Northumbria.
Neither 'A Dictionary of English Surnames' by Reaney & Wilson [1991] nor
'A
Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames' by C. W. Bardsley [1901. Reprint
1988] have an entry HESTERLY.
However Bardsley provides another origin for HESTER
Hester, Easter.-Local, 'of the Ester' or 'Estre.' Not from Hester or
Esther, a scriptural name which I have not yet met with at the requisite
period.
'Estre, court, street, town' (A.N.).
Estres, the inward parts of a building, chambers, walks, passages in a
garden (A.N.); v. Will. and Werw. p. 64 (Halliwell).
'The estres of the grisly place.' Chaucer, C.T. 1973.
Robert de le Estre, co. Suffolk, 1273. Hundred Rolls.
Robert del Ester, co. Cambridge., ibid.
William del Estre, co. Devon, Testa de Neville, sive Liber Feodorum,
temp. Henry III-Edward I.
Hester and Easter seem to be modern imitative garbs of the word.
London, 6, 1; Boston (U.S.), 5, 3.
It appears that the villages of Good & High Easter, Essex have their origin
in the above meaning of Easter according to 'The Concise Oxford Dictionary
of English Place-names'.
Easter, Good & High, Essex. [Estre c 1050 KCD p907, 1206 FF, Estra DB,
Godithestr 1200 P, -estre 1208 FF, Heautestre 1251 Ch, Heyestre 1254 Val].
Easter goes back to Old English *estre, which has the same relation to
eowestre as Old English ede 'a flock' to eowde. The meaning is
'sheepfold'.
Good Easter from an early owner, a woman named Godith. High Easter is on
higher ground than Good Easter.
(1050 is the first recorded instance of the name, DB = Domesday Book 1086 ,
* = hypothetical form)
I think what Ekwall is saying here is that 'estre' is synonymous with (or a
compaction) of 'eowestre', a ewe fold (i.e. sheepfold), just as 'ede' is
synonymous with 'eowede', a ewe flock (i.e. sheep flock)
From a quick scan of the IGI on microfiche I came across the following
names:
EASTERLY Gloucestershire
ESTHER Gloucestershire, Shropshire
HESTER Gloucestershire, Shropshire, Oxfordshire (A large number)
EASTER Suffolk
EASTERBY Suffolk
EASTERLEY Suffolk (one only)
EASTERLYE Suffolk (one only)
When I'm next in London I'll have a look at the Ordnance Survey Gazetteer
for any place-names starting with (H)ester. This contains ALL the
place-names which appear on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Explorer series of
maps which cover the U.K. (The on-line version contains no more than the
32,000 names or so which appear in the OS road atlas.)
--
Best regards
Dick Jones
Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. U.K.