This interesting and unusual surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from Thurland in Lancashire. The placename is recorded as "Thorolfland" in the 1247 Cockersand Chartulary, and as "Thurland" in the 1465 Patent Rolls, and the derivation is from the Old Norse personal name "Thorolfr", Old Swedish "Thorulver", Old Danish "Thurulfr", and the Olde English pre 7th Century "land", land, territory, estate; hence, "Thorolf's land". During the Middle Ages, when migration for the purpose of job-seeking was becoming more common, people often took their former village name as a means of identification, thus resulting in a wide dispersal of the name. In the modern idiom the surname has many variant spellings ranging from Turland, Thurland and Thorland, to Tarland and Terland. Recordings of the surname from London Church Registers include: the marriage of Elizabeth Turlande and Joannes Genowe on January 18th 1576, at St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster; the christening of William Turland at St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury, on March 28th 1626; and the marriage of Joane Turland and Edward Hubbert on October 29th 1626, at St. Gregory by St. Paul. The Coat of Arms most associated with the family is an ermine shield, on a red chief indented three gold crosses Tau, the Crest being a Capuchin friar's head couped at the shoulders proper, vested silver. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Wyllm Thurland, which was dated October 18th 1575, marriage to Annes Brayton, at St. Giles' Cripplegate, London, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, known as "Good Queen Bess", 1558 - 1603. 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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