This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Nicholas,' from nick. Coll, and diminutive Colley; v. Colly and Colls.

'Ran Colle our dogge, and Talbot, and Gerlond': Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales.

All these are font-names (v. Talbot and Garland). One can scarce help asking the question, that since talbot has come to denominate a particular species of dog, and is taken from the personal name Talbot.

1561. Roger Colley and Ellen Anderson: Marriage Lic I London).

1778. Married — John Collie and Mary Hodgson: St. George, Hanover Square.

= Coley, q.v.

The main family came to Ireland temp. Henry VIII; later they acquired the Wellesley property and name. MIF 239, 249

(Welsh) Descendant of little Coll, a pet form of Nicholas (people, victory).

The original surname of the Marquis Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, &c., was written Cowley, temp. Hen. VIII.

Local. Coll—lle, in Welsh, denotes the place of hazel; Cil—lle, the place on the back or neck of the hill; from cil or col, the back or neck. Coille, Gaelic, a wood.

From Cuilly or Quilly, near Falaise, Normandy. Ralph de Cuillio, Nicholas de. C., in Normandy, 1180-95 (Mag. Rot. Scac.).

From Cuilly. Robert Bordet, with his son Robert, witnessed a charter of the Count of Anjou, c. 1050. He had issue, 1. Robert; 2. Hugh, who, in 1086, held considerable estates in Leicester from the Countess Judith, and was ancestor of the Burdetts baronets, and of Baroness Burdett-Coutts. Robert Bordet, the elder son, Lord of Cuilly, was dead before 1086, when his widow held from Hugh de Grentmenil, in Leicester (Domesd. i. 232 b.). He had been living in 1077 (Mon. i. 562), and his son Hugh de Cuilli in 1128 witnessed a charter of Richard de Beauvais (Mon. ii. 143). Hugh had issue, 1. Robert de Cuilli; 2. Walter de C. The elder son Robert Bordet, Sire de Cuilli, m. Sibylla, d. of William de Chievre, a baron of Devon, and on undertaking to rebuild the city of Tarragona in Spain, and to defend it against the Saracens, obtained the suzerainty, with the rank of Prince of Tarragona. He in 1133, at the head of his Norman chivalry, rescued Alfonso, King of Arragon, and his army from destruction by the Saracens, at the battle of Fraga. William, Sire de Aguillon, his son, one of the barons of Normandy, 1165 (Feod. Norm.), lost the princi­pality of T. in consequence of the accidental death of the archbishop, which was attributed to him. He appears to have been succeeded by Manasser de Aguillon, his brother, ancestor of the Barons Aguillon. Simon, a younger brother, was ancestor of the De Cuillys of Normandy.

Walter de Cuilly, brother of the first Prince of Tarragona, witnessed the foundation charter of Canwell, Stafford, 1142 (Mon. i. 440). In 1247 Hugh de C. paid a fine in Warwick (Roberts, Excerpt. ii.). William de Quilly (13th cent.) held lands in Stafford from Marmion (Inq. p. Mort.), and also held Ratcliffe-Culey or Cuilly, Leicester, from the same (Nicholls, Leicester, iv. ii. 939). Hugh de Culey was Lord of Ratcliffe 1296, 1299. Hugh de Cuilly, 1309, was Constable of Kenilworth; and being taken prisoner with the Earl of Lancaster at the battle of Boroughbridge, died of his wounds in Pontefract Castle. He had issue John Culey, who had issue two sons, viz., Thomas, whose dau. and heir m. Sir John Stanhope, of Rampton (ancestor of the Earls of Chesterfield); 2. Richard, living 1361 (Rot. Origin., ii. 351), who was father of John Culley of Lubbenkam, Leicester, who m. a dau. of Sir John Harrington (Harl. MS. 1558, fel. 35), and had issue John of Lubbenham, father of William Colley, of Glaston, Rutland, whose son John had issue, 1. Anthony, ancestor of the Colleys, Lords of Glaston, extinct; 2. Walter; 3. Robert. The two youngest sons went to Ireland t. Henry VIII., and from Walter descended the Lords of Castle-Carbery, the lineal male ancestors of Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, the greatest and most victorious general ever produced by England.

The Colleys of Glayston, Rutland, were a knightly family in the 16th and 17th centuries (H. L.). The name is now rare in this part of England, but is represented by Coley in Worcestershire, and by Colley in North Wales.