This unusual and interesting name is of ancient Cornish origin, and is a locational surnaem deriving from the place in Cornwall called Trelash, near Boscastle. The placename means "the village of the court", from the Cornish "trev, tre", homestead, with "Llys", court, the latter form being the equivalent Welsh term; the form of the Cornish word is uncertain. The place called "Treales" in Lancashire has the same meaning, from the Welsh "tre" and "llys" as before. Locational surnames were acquired especially by those former inhabitants of a place who had moved to another area, and were there after best identified by the name of their birthplace. The surname development in Cornwall includes: Gulihelmus Trelas (1604), Warinus Trelasse (1606), Elizabeth Relase (1608), and Edmund Treles (1681). One Marie Trelease was christened in Saint Sampson, Cornwall, on July 22nd 1592, and Richard Trelese married Grace Mager in Gwennap, Cornwall, on September 10th 1741. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Chatherine Treallas (marriage to William Fishe), which was dated April 6th 1559, Black Torrington, Devonshire, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, "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.