The Marland Family

Origins of the Marlands

We have identified four places called Marland, any one of which could be the place of origin of someone of this name:

Marland, Lancashire in the Roch Dale, just downstream from Rochdale town.

The name Marland or Merland may have its roots in the Old English word mere, a pool, lake or standing water. Beside Marland Mere there is still a Mereside Farm. But the name may alternatively contain the Old English root gemære, boundary, and Marland is on the border of Bury. The manorial family here used the name from the thirteenth century; it continued to be associated with Rochdale Parish, and with the township of Marland in particular, until the seventeenth century at least. All the Marlands and Merlands in and around the Mersey catchment area are likely to originate from here.

Peters Marland, or Petermarland, or Marland St Peter, in Devon.

The name may derive from the village being on the River Mere (and the Church being dedicated to St Peter); there are two Merland entries in the Domesday Book for Devon, both of which may refer to this place. It seems likely that the Merlands, Marlands and Marlens in Devon and in neighbouring Somerset take their name from here. However, another possibility is Marsland, in Gooseham on the Cornish border. Robert de Merland of Orchardleigh had lands in the adjacent parish of Welcombe.

Marland, or Haut Marland, Southern Britanny

The village lies on the edge of the extensive wetland and marsh area of La Grande-Brière; the surname does occur in France, and it may derive from this place.

Maarland or Maerlant, on the island of Voorme, in Zeeland, south Netherlands.

A number of English mediaeval records report merchants from this harbour and its neighbour Brielle, sometimes bearing the surname de Marland. In more recent centuries it has been absorbed into Brielle, and is remembered only in names such as Maarland Nordzijde and Maarland Zuidzijde, which presumably mark out the old harbour. Its most famous son is Jacob van Maerlant, the thirteenth-century poet.

There is also a strong family line of Merland or Marland in Surrey, where they held manors in Banstead from 1464; this family came via the City of London, but we do not yet know its origin. They may have originated in one of the places listed above, but we cannot rule out a completely different origin.