Notes And Queries Regarding The Stay Name
12/24/97


This information was gathered nearly 20 years ago and is in need of updating.  Any family member who has additional information, ideas or changes please contact Gary Stay.   Thanks

One of the earliest accounts of the name of Stay appears in very early tax rolls in the county of Cumberland.  This record is refereed to as the Cumberland Lay Subsidy, which is a tax document in the "Liberty of Cokermouth" in the parish of Cliftoun, which is located about two and a half miles East of Workington and five and a half miles West of Cockermouth.  The Lay Subsidy was a tax imposed by King Edward the III in his 6th year of reign. (need to determine the date)  The amount taxed was substantial compared to others within the parish.  Other written records of the period do not exist, in a quich search of this county following this time, no additional records with the Stay name was located.  The county of Cumberland is one of the Northern most counties in England, most other early references to the Stay name are geographically located in the Southern counties of England.

Another very early record of the name is that of Henry la Stay in the county of Wiltshire in 1255 found in the Latin records "Rotuli Hundredorum", 2 Vol., 1812-18.  This is the earliest account located in the geographical area from which our family stems.   Another early name was Adam Bendict Stay or "Benedictus Stay" from about this same period. (need to find source and date).

Parish records were initiated during the early 1600s, most parishes in Dorset, Hamps, & Wilts do not record information until the late 1600 and early 1700s .  We find some Stay's listed during this period:

            Richard Stay born 24 March 1672, Sedgefield, Durham (father Ralph)
            John Stay married Ann Perkins 27 April 1693 Christchurch, Hampshire
            John Stay born 17 March 1632 at Hamperston, Dorsetshire
           Joseph and Ann Stay had children 1706-08 Iwerne Courtney, Dorsetshire

Also a few early entries from the London area.  By the late 1700s we find the name widely dispersed in Wiltshire, Dorsetshire and Hampshire.   The parishes with Stay families of these  three counties however, are all within a radius of about 40 miles.

Discrepancy in verbal family history

The story that the name of Stay was a derivative of the French name of Jettque, or Jettay, or Jettie should be discounted.  The story told within the family that the Stays were ran out of their country during the French revolution and that they took the name of stay when they settled in England.  The French revolution took place about 1788 to 1793.  By 1788 we find a considerable number of Stays widely dispersed throughout England.

Aden Stay told that this story came from a group of Stays that were traveling through Utah when he was a small boy. He is not sure of their name, or who they were, only that they wanted a handout and were on their way through Utah on way to California.

It would seem likely that the name could be a derivative of some of the old English names such as Stayley, Stayly, Staylye, Stayers, Stainer, or Stayner (of Blandford) .  All of these names were in use in Hampshire and Dorsetshire during the mid 1500s and early 1600s.

We also have early trades in England dealing with "stays"  corset stays, and stays for sails, thus a stay maker, much like a blacksmith, picked up the name of Smith, thus a stay maker could pick up the name of Stay.

Any additional ideas or thoughts would be welcomed.

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