This name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving from the place called Bottomley near Halifax in West Yorkshire. The placename means 'the wood or glade in the broad valley', derived from the Old English pre 7th Century word 'bothm, botm', valley bottom, dell, broad valley, with 'leah', wood, glade, clearing in a wood. Locational surnames were usually given to the lord of the manor, and to those former inhabitants of a place who left to live or work in another area, and were best identified by the name of their birthplace. The development of the surname includes Johannes de Bodhomlay (1379, Yorkshire), Peter Botumley (1524, Suffolk) and Margaret Bothomley (1589, Lancashire). The marriage of Samuel Bottomley and Dorothy Crossley was recorded at Elland in Yorkshire on February 15th 1601. A Coat of Arms granted to the Bottomley family of halifax, Yorkshire, is gold, on a red pile between two bees volant in base proper, a lion rampant of the field. An Angola goat in front of a palm tree proper resting the dexter foot upon a red escutcheon charged with a gold shuttle palewise is on the Crest. The motto 'Fideli certa merces' translates as 'To be faithful there is a certain reward'. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Hanne de Bothemley, which was dated 1277, in the Court Rolls of the Manor of Wakefield, Yorkshire, during the reign of King Edward 1st, known as 'The Hammer of the Scots', 1272-1307. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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