Origin of the Name Drury
The ancient history of the name
Drury was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives.
Over the centuries Surnames developed a wide number of variants. Different spellings of the same name can be traced back to an original root. Additionally when a bearer of a name emigrated it was not uncommon that their original name would be incorrectly transcribed in the record books at their new location. Surnames were also often altered over the years based on how they sounded phonetically and depending on the prevailing political conditions it may have been advantageous to change a name from one language to another.
Variants of the name Drury
include Druery, Drewery and Drewry. This is a nickname meaning 'the drury', from a person who was a sweetheart. This name is of English descent and is found in many ancient manuscripts in that country. Examples of such are an Alice Druerie, County Huntingdonshire, who was recorded in the 'Hundred Rolls', England , in the year 1273 and a Nigel Drury, County Yorkshire, who was also recorded in the same year in this ancient document.
Names were recorded in these ancient documents to make it easier for their overlords to collect taxes and to keep records of the population at any given time. When the overlords acquired land by either force or gifts from their rulers, they created charters of ownership for themselves and their vassals. It was by creating, maintaining and updating these reference books that they were able to maintain their authority and enforce laws.
In Ireland these names can be derived from the native Gaelic Mac and Druaidh sept which was also anglicized as Drewery and Droody. The Connaught based O'Draoda sept also sometimes changed their Gaelic name to Drury and Druery.
The Drury coat of arms came into existence centuries ago. The process of creating coats of arms (also often called family crests) began in the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this. The new art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own coat of arms, including all Drury descendants.