Spelling of the name Danvers

Spelling of the Danvers Name

Danvers is also the old name for Antwerp. Roland Danvers was one of those who accompanied William the Conqueror to England in 1066.
Roland originated from Auvers, Contentin, Normandy, now in France. Surnames in Europe were often family related, e.g. Samson or son of Sam. Many surnames in UK were trade related, e.g.  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_surnames_from_occupations. On arrival in England, the followers of William the Conqueror who had no surname often took up the name of the place they came from, e.g. Roland became known as Roland de Auvers.

I've found during our research that the spelling of the name differed considerably over the centuries, often even in the same document. One of the first major changes was the l to u, the spelling changed from de Alvers to de Anuers (of Auvers) which sounds like de Onvere. Later the e in de was omitted and the name was written Danuers. The v had no character of its own and was written u, or with two strokes. In some manuscripts, the n was also written this way making the spelling difficult to decipher, hence the close variations.

De Aluers, de Aluerse, de Anuers and Davers are the oldest forms of the name, followed by de Auners, De Anuers, Dauners, Danuers, Dauvers and Danyers. In 1297 Sir Thomas Danvers was summoned to military service as de Anuers, de Auners, Danvers and Daunvers. In more recent times, some have written their name d'Anvers and others continued to write it Danuers until the u was permanently replaced by v and so today we find it predominantly written two ways - D'Anvers and Danvers. 

I dropped the apostrophe and capital A when I got married. This was a direct result of the Air Force digitising their records where the apostrophe ended up in an entry box of its own and put the name out of order when sorting alphabetically. I forgot to mention this to my fiance, so she ended up signing our marriage certificate, D'Anvers.

A site selling genealogical memorabila called House of Names covers the topic for the name D'anvers.

Norman Origins of the Danvers Family

An extract from Memorials of the Danvers Family, Dr. F.N. Macnamara, 1895, Ch 2 & MMDF Ch 2

Robert de Alvers is the subject of a long notice by MM. Léchaudé- D’Anisy et de Ste-Marie in the first part of their work, Recherches sur le Domesday. These gentlemen, accomplished Norman antiquaries, made themselves thoroughly acquainted with all that they could learn from the ancient records of the province regarding the history of the Norman families of the period of the Conquest; and having done so, attempted to compile a history of those of them whose ancestors are mentioned in the Domesday Book. Unfortunately, they were not able to complete the work, but they published the first part of it, which includes a memoir of the Danvers family. But it must be noted that these gentlemen wrote from a French point of view, and not with the intention of showing the descent of our English houses. ‘Alvers, Robert de,’ obtained a house in Northampton from the Conqueror, and was himself of French origin, and the source of the English family of the name. Our authors state that there were many places named Anvers in the provinces of Normandy, Maine, Anjou, and the Isle of France, and they proceed to mention families of the name of de Auvers which they consider had a right to claim descent from Robert de Auvers of the Domesday Book. In Normandy they find in the Livre de Cens et Rentes of the Abbey of Mont St Michel (a manuscript compiled in the year 1270) that the abbey had bought land of Garin de Auvers, in the field de Auvers, in the parish of Ardevon. Jean de Auvers held of the abbey the fief of André Auvers, in the commune of Monthébert. Also they found the names of Ralph and Randolph de Auvers in the same book; and in the book of rents of the Abbey of St Sauveur-le-Vicomte (compiled A.D. 1296) they find the names of Reginald and Ralph de Auvers, and in the same record many concessions to the abbey ‘ab antiquitate de dono armigeri de Auvers.’ In Maine are two parishes named ‘Auvers’—Auvers-Montfaucon, belonging to the house of Assé, of which at an early period a cadet took the name of Auvers. The other village is Auver le Hamon, formerly a barony, of which in the twelfth century Robert de Auvers was lord. He contributed to the priory of Solesme, and also to the foundation of the Abbey of Boisrenou, in the year 1189. Our authors, though they do not give further reason for so doing, ascribe the origin of the last-mentioned family to Robert de Auvers of the Domesday record, and consider the other families named branches of it. Clearly these gentlemen place the origin of the de Auvers family either in Auvers of Normandy, or in one or other of the places of the name in Maine.

But we have some further particulars regarding the ancient Norman family de Auvers, for the knowledge of which we are indebted to the kindness of the Abbé J. Briant, formerly Vicar of Auvers, and now Curé of Binniville, a village in the neighbourhood of St Sauveur-le-Vicomte. This Auvers, one of the three just mentioned, is in the peninsula of the Cotentin, which was formerly a portion of the dukedom of Normandy. Auvers is situated three or four miles west of Carentan, a town at the base of the peninsula, while about twelve miles north west of Auvers is the town of St Sauveur-le-Vicomte.

The Abbey of St Sauveur was founded by Neel, Vicomte of St Sauveur and Seigneur d’Auvers, about the year 1087, and was endowed by him with a large part of his lands.1 The rest of his possessions passed eventually to his neighbours, the family of Harcourt, one of whom, Richard de Harcourt, married Jeane Tesson, niece and heir to Roger, nephew or grandson of Neel. Thus the Harcourts, neighbours and allies of the family of St Sauveur, became lords of that town and also of Auvers.

To return to Neel. We find that about the year 10902 he confirmed to the Abbey of St Sauveur the donations which had been made to it, ‘ex dono bonorum hominum,’ as follows:

William de Auvers, son of Helge, gives the tithes of the mill of Neuville (Nova Villa), and in Ingulvilla the tithes of three vassals.

Robert de Auvers, and William, son of Turges, give to the abbey all that they hold in the church of Auvers, and the tithes of a mill in Tornebosc. Robert also gives the tithes which he holds in Auvers, and three cottages.

William, son of Helge, de Alvers—the village here bears the name by which Robert de Alvers is called in Domesday Book—also gives to the abbey all that he had in the church—that is (scilicet) de Alvers, with the consent of his lord, Eudes, viscount (Eudes, brother to Neel).

We gather from the above that the de Auvers family was one well known by that name, and that they were a family of good standing, having vassals, and property in three places besides that which they possessed in the village of Auvers. And we think there are two considerations which may be made use of to support the view that it was from this branch of the family that the English family took their origin, and they are as follows: The family of Auvers and that of the Harcourts were neighbours in Cotentin, and we find that shortly after the Conquest these families3 were together large landholders in the village of Frolesworth, in Leicester, not far from Northampton; and it may be worth noting that, at the time of the Survey, a Robert, possibly Robert de Alvers of Northampton, held the manor of Schernford, only two miles distant from Frolesworth.

1 Leopold Delisle’s History of the Family of St Sauveur-le-Vicomte. Valognes, 1867.
2 Chartulary of St Sauveur, quoted by Leopold Delisle in the appendix to his history.
3 Nichols’ History of Leicestershire, vol. iv, Part i, pp. 180 and 188.