This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of Shirley,' parishes in Derbyshire, Hampshire, &c.

Johannes de Scherlay, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Willelmus de Scherlay, 1379: ibid.

1573. George Shyrlye, Leicestershire: Register of the University of Oxford.

1579. Anthony Sherlye, Sussex: ibid.

1582. John Shurley, Sussex: ibid.

(English) belonging to Shirley; or Dweller at 1 the Bright or White Lea [Old English scír + leáh.] 2 the Shire- or Parish-Lea [Old English scír, district, parish, shire] Shirley, Hants, was Shirle, a.d. 1326-7; Shirley, Derby, was Scherlay in the late 14th cent.

Cp. Sherley.

(English) One who came from Shirley (wood belonging to the shire), the name of several places in England.

This ancient family trace, without hiatus, to Sasuualo, or Sewallis, whose name, says Dugdale, "argues him to be of the old English stock," and who is mentioned in Domesday as mesne lord of Eatington, co. Warwick, under Henry de Ferrers. This, the oldest knightly family of that county, resided at Eatington until the reign of Edward III., though in the meantime, in the twelfth century, they adopted their surname from their manor of Shirley in Derbyshire. Eatington has never been alienated, and it is, at this day, one of the residences of the existing representative of the family, Evelyn Philip Shirley, Esq., M.P. See Stemmata Shirleiana, 1841; and Shirley's Noble and Gentle Men.

This family descends from Sasualo, who held vast estates from Henry de Ferrars 1086. He has been supposed of Anglo-Saxon origin, but the name does not occur amongst the proprietors t. Edward Confessor (Domesd.); nor is it probable that such vast estates (nine knights’ fees) would have been given to an Anglo-Saxon. The name is probably foreign. Sasualo or Saswalo was Castellan of Lisle, Flanders, c. 1000, and 1039 founded the Abbey of Palempin (Albert Miræus, Op. Diplom. i. 54). His son Robert, Castellan of Lisle, had 1. Roger, whose grandson went to the Crusade 1096, and from whose brother Hugh descended the powerful Castellans of Lisle. 2. Sasualo, or Sigewalo, who witnessed a charter of Baldwin, Bishop of Tournay 1087 (Tb. 60). He appears to be the ancestor of this family, who came to England 1066. From him descended the families of Edensor, Ireton, and Shirley, who bore respectively the arms of Ferrars and Ridel. Hence the Earls Ferrars.

A family of Shirley possessed large estates in Hanbury, Staffordshire, in the 16th century (S.). The Shirleys of Eatington, Warwickshire, have an ancient pedigree (L.). There were also old distinguished families of the name in Leicestershire (S.). There are parishes and villages thus called in Warwickshire, Derbyshire, etc.