This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Sayer.' also found as Sagar, Sigar, and Seger. A forgotten personal name that has left an indelible mark on our directories. From twenty to twenty-five surnames separately spelt are the offspring, and many have a large number of representatives. The name was popular so early as Domesday as Segar and Sigar, and Latinized as Sigarus. Siger de Frivile is found in the Hundred Rolls as Siger, Saer, Sayer, and Seer (ii. 152, 514, 153, 523). The following surnames (amongst others) will be found in their proper place, unquestionable descendants of Siger or Sayer, viz. Seager, Seeger, Seaker, Sugar, Sugars, Siggers, Saggers, Sagar, Sager, Seeker, Sear, Sears, Sear.

Stephen de Segrave, Kent, 20 Edward I: Placita de Quo Warranto, temp. Edward I-III.

1700. Buried — John Seagrave, son of John Seagrave, haberdasher of hats: St. Dionis Backchurch.

1733. Baptised — Robert, s. William Seagrave: St. Antholin (London).

(Celtic) Carpenter, Wright [Welsh saer = Cornish saer, sair = Irish and Gaelic saor] . . . marchauc a elwit Saer (. . . a cavalier—knight—called Saer).— Brut y Tywysogion, A.D. 1100.

Saer Bude.—Hundred Rolls Cp. MacIntyre.

(Anglo-French-Latin) Assayer; Taster [from Anglo-French assai, assay (French essai: cp. French essayeur, assayer), a test + the agential suff. -er; Latin exagium, a weighing] Thyn assayar schalle be an hownde, To assaye thy mete before the.—MS. Cantab.; Halliwell, p. 96.

The process of "taking say” or “assay” of a dead deer consisted in “drawing a knife along the belly . . . beginning at the brisket.”—T. Wright, p. 111.

(Teutonic) a palatal form of Sager, Sagar, q.v.

Sayer Herberd.—Hundred Rolls John Sayer.— do.

(English) One who sold silk or serge; one who assayed or tested metals, or tasted food; descendant of Saer or Sayer (victory, people).

whence SAYERS. An assayer of metals. Also an Anglo-Norman personal name, as Saher de Quincy, the famous Earl of Winchester. Sayer and Sayere in the Hund. Rolls, without the prefix le, seem to give the latter derivation the preference. With regard to the former, Kelham observes, that "when Domesday was compiled, there was always a fire ready in the Exchequer, and if they liked not the allay of the money, they burnt it, and then weighed it." Hence the expression in Domesday, ' Lib. LVI arsas et pensatas'-56lb. burnt and weighed.-Kelham's Domesday, p. 157. The Sayer would therefore be a crown officer who assayed the precious metals.

From root of Soor, q. v. Treganyan in St. Michael Penkevil was anciently the seat of the Sayers.

(Cornish), Saer, Sawyer, Carpenter. (variant: Timmerman.)

From the Old Norse, Syr; nickname (?). from the German, Sehr, Seher, Sy; in the Domesday Book, Sired, Sirof, Seiar; from the Dutch, Soer, Sierse; from the Flemish, Sehier; from the French, Seyer; a personal name.

Sayer was the name of an old Colchester family of wealth and municipal consequence in the 16th century (C.). During the 14th century the Sayer family of Coppeford held of the King 82 acres of land in the village of Lachingdon (M.). The name is now scantily represented in the county.

Sayer is a very ancient name in this county. As Sayer and Sayere it occurred in Norfolk, Beds, and Hants in the 13th century (H. R.) The Sayers of Pulham, Norfolk, an ancient family, from which the Sayers of Eye, Suffolk, are derived, were lords of the manor of Pulham in the 17th and 18th centuries (Bl.). Sayer is also an ancient Essex name.

Sayer has long been a North Riding name. There was a John Sayer of Worsall, Northallerton, in the reign of Henry VIII. (Ingledew's "Northallerton"). Francis Sayer, of Marrick Park in the North Riding, was one of the Yorkshire Roman Catholics who lost their estates in 1605 (F.). The name has been represented in Norfolk for many centuries, and further reference to it will be found under that county.