Mortiboys Family History

of uncertain origin. It could have arisen from a compound of Old French mort(i)er ‘mud’ (attested with this sense only in the place-names (Le) Mortier and (Les) Mortiers numerous in N France) and Old French bois ‘wood’. No French place-name with this compound has been identified so the question arises whether *Morterbois later becoming Mortiboys might be a translation of English Fulwood (‘muddy wood’) possibly originating in Anglo-Norman French legal documents.

In Warwicks where Mortiboys is mainly recorded Fulwood was the former name of Clay Hall in Tanworth in Arden (Warwicks) and had been the surname of its owners since at least the 13th century (see Fullwood). The co-occurrence of both surnames in the following parishes could be mere coincidence: Thomas Mortyboies 1540 and Fraunces Fulwoode 1576 in IGI (Solihull Warwicks); Margareta Fulwood 1585 and Joseph Morteboyes 1707 in IGI (Tanworth in Arden Warwicks where Thomas Mortiboys owned land probably in the early 1500s).

Mary Fulwood 1653 and Anne Mortiboys 1691 in IGI (Wootton Wawen Warwicks). Perhaps members of the Fullwood family used Mortiboys as an alias but this is unproven.