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GORE Family History

This rather unusual surname, is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and locational from Gore (Court) in Kent, or Gore in Wiltshire, both so called from the Olde English pre 7th Century "gara" meaning "gore" (a triangular piece of land). Locational surnames were usually acquired by a local landowner, or by the lord of the manor, and especially by those former inhabitants of a place who had moved to another area, and were thereafter best identified by the name of their birthplace. The surname is first recorded in the latter half of the 12th Century (see below), and further early recordings include: one Alan atte Gore, who appeared in the 1273 Hundred Rolls of Essex, and a William de Gora, listed in the Hundred Rolls of Wiltshire, dated 1274...