This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'de Malore' or 'Mallore' (three syllables). Evidently some Norman local surname.

Anketil de Malore, Berkshire, Oxf., and York: Henry III-Edward I: Testa de Nevill, sive Liber Feodorum, temp. Henry III-Edward I.

Robert Malhore, or Mallore, or Mallori, or Mallory, or Mallure, Northamptonshire: ibid.

Anketil Malore, Salop, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Crispiane Malure, Leicestershire, ibid.

Bertram Malore, Bedfordshire, 20 Edward I: Placita de Quo Warranto, temp. Edward I-III.

Johannes Malore, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Alicia fil. Johannes Maulore, 1379: ibid.

Peter Mature, Herefordshire, ibid.

1578. Married — William Cotton and Elizabeth Mallare: St. Dionis Backchurch (London).

1664. — Foulke Maloberand Frances Mallory: St. Michael, Cornhill.

1726. Baptised — Mary, d. Stephen Malary: St. James, Clerkenwell.

(English) The unhappy or unfortunate man.

“Maloures or Malesoures was near St. Brieux in Brittany. Durand de Malesoure lived c. 1040. He had two sons, who came to England in 1066: 1. Adam Fitz Durand, who held in Essex, 1086; and 2. Fulcher de Maloure, whose barony was in Rutland, and who held in Northants from the Countess Judith at the same date.” (Bridge’s Northamptonshire.) - The Norman People. The Mallores were seated for many generations in Leicestershire, where they affixed their name to Kirkby Mallory. “The first of the family,” says Nichols, “that I have met with was Geoffrey, father of Sir Anchitel Mallory, who, being governor of the town and castle of Leicester under Robert Blanchemains in the time of his rebellion against Henry II., marched thence to Northampton, and after a sharp fight, having defeated the burghers there, returned to Leicester with the spoils and plunder of that town; for which his lands being forfeited, they were in 1174 seized by the King. Nor was he ever restored to them; but Henry his son, paying a fine of sixty marks to King John, obtained a restitution of this manor of Kirkby Mallory, and all his father’s lands in this county and Warwickshire.” Thomas Malesoures was several times knight of the shire during the reign of Edward II.; and in that of his successor, Sir Anketill Mallore sold Kirkby Mallory. His eldest son, Sir Thomas, was of Bramcote, Warwickshire, in right of his wife, the heiress of the Grendons, but had only one child, Elizabeth, married to Sir Robert Ever. The male line was, however, continued till 1512, when John Mallory was slain at Therouenne, or Tournay, leaving five daughters. This elder branch of the house was seated at Walton-on-the Woulds; but there were also Mallorys of Swinford, bearing different arms; of whom was John Mallory, High Sheriff of Leicestershire 15 Ric. II., 4 Henry V., and 3 Henry VI. Swinford had come to him by his marriage with the eldest co-heiress of the Revells, who also brought him Newbold Revell in Warwickshire. He appears to have been a younger son of the Northamptonshire branch (see above), and his line ended with his great grandson Nicholas, High Sheriff of Leicestershire in 1502, whose co-heiresses, Dorothy and Margaret, had both for their first husbands two gentlemen of the name of Cave.

The family also held Botley in Warwickshire of the Botelers of Overston from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. “The place where the Malores most resided,” says Dugdale, “was Walton-on-the-Would in Leicestershire; though they were likewise owners of Botley in this county,” where Tachebrook Mallory retains their name, and continued in their possession till Henry VI.’s time. Simon Malore is styled Lord of Drayton in 1277; and tenth in descent from him was Nicholas, High Sheriff in 1502, who left only two daughters. Winwick in Northamptonshire was another of their possessions, and they were also landowners in Rutland and Cambridgeshire, where Sir William Mallory is returned as one of the gentry of the county in 1433, and Sir Anthony was three times High Sheriff in the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. The last I find mentioned is another William, who served the same office 6 & 17 Elizabeth. Sir Peter Malorey, who married Matilda, the co-heir of Stephen de Bayeux, and the widow of Elias de Rabayn, was one of the “knights called as assistants” to the Parliament held at Salisbury by Edward I. in 1296. He was one of the Justices of the Common Pleas in 1291, and in that quality had summons to parliament. Another ‘‘Peter de Malure is noticed, who, 35 Ed. III., was one of those who, holding lands in Ireland, had summons to attend a great council then convened to meet at Westminster, to deliberate upon the affairs of that kingdom. But with regard to the descent of these persons, or their connection with each other, there is no proof to establish the same.”—Banks.

Sir Christopher Mallory (son of Sir William and a daughter of Lord Zouche) acquired great estates in North Yorkshire and the co. of Durham by his marriage with Joan, daughter and co-heir of Robert Conyers of Hutton Conyers, the last representative of the elder branch of that great Norman house. “There be two Lordshipps lyenge not very far from Ripon, that is Norton Conyers and Hutton Coniers. Norton hathe Northeton Coniers, and Malorie hath Hutton Coniers. Thes Lands cam to theyr Aunciters by two Dowghters, Heirs Generali of that Coniers.”—Leland. This must have been in the very first years of the fourteenth century; for his great grandson, William Mallory, was living in 1444, when he succeeded his father-in-law at the “Place caullyd Highe Studly, a little from Fontaines.” He, too, had matched with a co-heiress, Dionysia Tempest, whose elder sister, by a curious coincidence, was the wife of Richard Norton of Norton-Conyers. It does not, however, appear that he abandoned his old manor house at Hutton, for it continued to be the chief seat of his descendants until the end of the sixteenth century. Both his son and his daughter-in-law founded chantries in Ripon Cathedral, where many of the family were buried. Leland mentions “a Tumbe of one of the Malories in the Southe Parte of the Crosse in a Chapel, and without, as I heard, lyeth diverse of them under flate Stones.” They flourished for nine descents in Yorkshire, multiplying so rapidly that one of them, burdened with eighteen children and fifteen brothers and sisters, was compelled to sell —”at a time when changes of property were seldom thought of or voluntarily effected” —two of their most ancient estates, Trefforth and Washington in the co. of Durham. Unlike their neighbours the Nortons, the Mallorys took part with the Crown in the Rising of the North, and Sir William, then the head of the family, and High Sheriff of the county in 1592, was brother-in-law to Sir George Bowes of Streatlam, Queen Elizabeth’s ruthless ‘‘marshal north of Trent” He was very keen in advancing the Reformation, which had made but scant progress in the Ripon district, and was employed by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners at York “to pull downe the gilden tabernacle” in the Cathedral. Yet one of his grandsons, Christopher Mallory, suffered persecution as a Roman Catholic, being arrested on the Tower Wharf in 1628, “whilst looking curiously at the ordnance”: and also charged with inducing a Londoner named Lancaster to leave his property to two foreign monasteries. “Soon after, the strange story crops up that Mallory had acted in a play at the house of Sir John York of Goulthwaite, a convert to Popery. It is gravely stated that Mallory performed the part of the devil, and in that character carried off King James on his back to a supposed hell, alleging that all Protestants were damned.”—J. R. Walbran. Though he stoutly denied both accusations, he was actually detained for some little time in prison. His nephew, Sir John, commanded two regiments for the King during the Civil War, and, as governor of Skipton, held that castle for three years, and during that time brought over a troop of horse from Ripon, and drove out Sir Thomas Mauleverer and his men, who had taken possession of the town.” During his absence from home, his own house at Hutton Conyers was, according to tradition, set upon and partly destroyed by the Parliamentarians. “Sir John, of course, was a marked man, and was obliged to lay down as a composition for his estates the large sum of ₤2,219.” His son William proved the last of “this ancient and well allied family," and died in 1664. On his death the estates reverted to his brother-in-law George Aislabie, who “came to his end in a very unfortunate manner. Miss Mallory, his wife’s sister, had been to a party at the Duke of Buckingham’s house on Bishop hill, and was escorted home to Aislabie’s house by a brother of Sir Edward Jenings of Ripon. By some mischance they could not get in, and so Mr. Jenings was obliged to take the lady to the residence of his brother-in-law, Dr. Watkinson. On the following day Jenings told Aislabie that it was hard Sir John Mallory’s daughter must wait at George Aislabie’s gates and not be admitted. This produced a quarrel and a challenge, and the two met at Penley Croft, close to the city, the signal of the meeting being the ringing of the minster-bell to prayers on a good Sunday morning. Mr. Aislabie was killed.”—Ibid. For about one hundred years—till 1781—his posterity continued at Studley. The last heir had the rare good fortune of adding to his possessions Fountains Abbey, with its beautiful domain, and his daughter and grand-daughter successively inherited them. The latter, Miss Lawrence—one of the few great heiresses on record that never chose to marry—left them in 1845 to the father of the present Marquess of Ripon, the representative of Sir William Robinson, who had married Mary, daughter of George Aislabie, and the heiress of Studley.

A branch of the Yorkshire Mallorys, descended from a younger son who became Dean of Chester, and died in 1644, survived in Cheshire till 1795.

From the French, Mellery; a personal name.

Mallory: Sir Thomas Mallory, who wrote his delightful “Morte d’Arthur” that was printed by Caxton, drew his name from Meilleray in Seine-et-Marne probably, but the name is found in other departments as well.