Freer Family History

English: sometimes from Middle English frere frier ‘brother friend comrade’ (Old French frere). During the 13th century, however, the word increasingly denoted ‘member of one of the mendicant religious orders’, the usual modern sense of the word friar. The first friars arrived in England in 122. As with Abbot, Monk, Nunn, and Prior, late medieval use of Frere as a nickname was probably uncomplimentary, for by the mid 14th century the once popular friars had become a byword in satirical literature for self-indulgent, smooth-talking hypocrisy.

Friars were not allowed to marry, but some of them probably fathered children. After the Reformation, former friars were free to marry, and one such is said to have been the progenitor of the Friers of Melrose parish, Roxburgh, an instance, if true, of post-medieval surname creation. The name may also be occupational for someone who lived or worked at a friary (Middle English frere ‘house of friars’).

Americanized form of French Frère (see Frere). German: cognate of Friedrich.