I am looking for the history and meaning of the family name "waring".
Most of my family come from liverpool. I believe that the family crest
contains the motto "Nec vii, nec astutia" Niether by force nor by
fraud. But there are many waring family crests around and I would like
to know which one belongs to my name.

Dear snowyreef,

Tracing ancestral roots with so little information is indeed not easy.
But I think I managed to locate some information you might find
interesting and helpful.

If the family crest's motto really is "Nec vii, nec astutia", this
Waring family crest is very likely connected with the Warings you
belong to:

http://www.waringweb.com/waring/coatofarms.jpg
Source: Waring Family Information: The Coat of Arms, by Mark Waring

This website features a detailed heraldic description of the coat of
arms, supplied by John B. Waring of Charleston, South Carolina, a
descendand of the Waring family branch bearing this crest:

Waring Family Information: The Coat of Arms, by Mark Waring
http://www.waringweb.com/waring/coatofarms.html


That website also provides some genealogical data on the oldest known
bearers of the crest: One Edmund Waring from Lea (near Wolverhampton),
Salop County - only 40 miles south of Liverpool -, who married a
certain Mary Brough (or Broughton) in or before 1623. His father and
grandfather both bore the name Thomas Waring, his great-grandfather
was Michael Waring.

With this information, I was able to find out a bit more:

Thomas Waring was born about 1544 in Lea, Staffordshire. He married
Elizabeth Corbet (born ca. 1548 in Lea) about 1574. They had six
Children:

- Edmund Waring, born about 1575 in Lea.

- Katherine Waring, born about 1577 in Staffordshire. Died after 1668.

- Elizabeth Waring, born about 1579 in Staffordshire. Died after 1668.

- Richard Waring, born about 1584 in London, Middlesex. Died before
1668-69

- Michael Waring, christened 15 January 1581 in St. Peter's,
Wolverhampton, Staffordshire. Married Judith Cowley from London (ca.
1586 - 8 Nov 1643). Buried in the graveyard of St. Olave's (London),
17 October 1638.

- Robert Waring, about whom I did not find any information.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to find further traces of these
Warings. But you might want to contact the John B. Waring mentioned on
the Waring Coat of Arms website, who supplied the information on the
family crest and on the early family history. He might have sources
and contacts far superior to those available online. You will find his
e-mail address on the website.

The origin and meaning of the family name "Waring" is also not easy to
determine. But the most common etymology relates to the Norman term
"Warin" (= "Guard") which came to England with the French-Norman
conquerers of William the Conqueror in 1066.
John B. Waring, who did research on the family history, found out
that: "...Samuel Waring (...) met with several gentleman who spell
their name Waring, Warring, Warin, Warren & bearing mostly different
coats of arms, but all owning themselves to be decendants from William
Waring who came from France with William the Conquer (...)".
This would fit with the derivation of the name "Waring" from the
Norman "Warin". Also, there is still today a French given name
"Geran", originating from the same Norman term.

Sources:

Waring Family Information: The Coat of Arms, by Mark Waring
http://www.waringweb.com/waring/coatofarms.html

Waring Family Photos, by Daniel Roach, 2002
http://daniel.hypermart.net/waring_photo's.htm

FamilySearch: Online Genealocial Database
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Search/frameset_search.asp

EnglishWiz: The Etymology of Last Names
http://mizian.com.ne.kr/englishwiz/library/names/etymology_of_last_names.htm

Country Family: Surnames E-H
http://www.spiderweb2000.net/CountryRelaxin/surnames-eh.html

Search terms used:
waring "Nec vii, nec astutia"
://www.google.de/search?q=waring+%22Nec+vii%2C+nec+astutia%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=de&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=
waring normans
://www.google.de/search?q=waring+normans&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=de&meta=
"surname waring" norman french
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=%22surname+waring%22+norman+french&meta=

I hope that what I found out is helpful and interesting for you!
Best regards,
Scriptor

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Clarification of Answer by scriptor-ga on 02 Feb 2003 09:06 PST

Dear snowyreef,

I find it not very polite of you to give me the worst possible rating
without even giving me the opportunity to enhance my answer by
additional research, if necessary. Furthermore, I do not even know the
reason why you were not satisfied.

Scriptor

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Request for Answer Clarification by snowyreef-ga on 02 Feb 2003 11:11 PST

The information you provided was the same as I had already retrieved
from the same websites you mentioned. I learned nothing new from your
answer and paid $30 for it. The rating simply portrayed how usefull
the information was to me not how good you are at what you do. I
apologise for any offence it may have caused.

---

Clarification of Answer by scriptor-ga on 02 Feb 2003 11:39 PST

Dear snowyreef,

If not satisfied with an answer, you can always request a complete
refund from the editors or to have your question re-posted for free;
according to Google Answers' Terms of Service, you are absolutely
entitled to do so. You don't have to accept an answer you are not
happy with.
Also, please keep in mind that I was not able to guess what you
already knew. In case you decide to have your question re-posted, you
should let the Researches know what information and websites you
already have, in order to avoid possible confusion or dissapointment.

Regards,
Scriptor

The information I recieved told me nothing I didn't already know. I
learned nothing from the answer I was given.