SULLY Review
By Don Steel
This article was originally published in the April 1995 edition of Soul Search, the journal of The Sole Society.
At Huntspill, only just down the A38 from where I live:
Sir Raymond de Sully had lands in Alston junta Huntspill in the time of Edward Ill. He bore on his shield barry of six. The witnesses to a deed of this Sir Raymond, dated A.D.1370 were John Everard of Huntspill, Thomas de Burgh, John de Weston and John de Marisco.
At Mudford, near Yeovil:
The principal possessors of the chief manor in Mudford after the Norman Conquest were denominated from it de Modiford. Henry lord of Modiford, by a deed without date, granted to William Malet, lord of Enmore two fardels of land in the village of Mudford, in free marriage with Sarah, the daughter of Lord Raymond de Sulley. The seal appendant to this deed has the naeni de Modiford surrounding a rose, the arms of that ancient family.
At Withycome, four miles from Minehead on a tablet against the north wall of the nave:
Underneath lyeth the body of Elianor Sully, daughter of Richard Sully and Margaret his wife, who was wife of Henry Chester, and
with the observation, presumably by the sorrowing widower,
“What is more miserable than a living man without divine assistance."
The name is not listed in Reaney's Dictionary of English Surnames, but the earlier C. W. Bardesley's Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames derives the name from Sudeley, now Sudeley Manor, a parish in County Gloucester, often written SULLY in old records. A family of Sudeleys resided here for centuries. He lists the following examples:
Bartholomew de Sulley, or Sudeley, cc. Glouc, Hundred Rolls, 1273
Henry de Stilly, co. Devon Hundred Rolls, 1273
Walter de Sully cc. Devon, Hundred Rolls, 1273
Reymond de Suleye, co. Devon Testa de Neville, or Liber Feodorum Henry III ‑Edward I
Mabilia de Suly cc. Glos. Placita de Quo Warranto 20 Edw I
Ralph de Sudlegh, or Sule, or Suley cc. Gloric Testa de Neville, or Liber Feodorum Henry III ‑ Edw I
Adam Sulleygh co. Somerset Lay Subsidy 1 Edward III (in Kirby's Quest for Somerset)
1762 Married Thomas Leigh and Joan Sully, St George's Hanover Square
London Commercial and Court Directories 1870, 8 entries.
Directory of Philadelphia 1885, 1 entry.
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