This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Bartholomew,' from the nick. Tholy. The following seems to prove a diminutive existed:

'Godus Tholyn-wyf,' i.e. Godus, the wife of Tholyn, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

Toly Museye, Lincolnshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Douce Toly, Cambridgeshire, ibid.

Tholy Oldcorn, Cambridgeshire, ibid.

Stephen Toli, Cambridgeshire, ibid.

Johanna fil. Tholy, 39 Henry III: Calendarium Genealogicum: Henry III-Edward I.

William, the son of Tole: English Gilds.

1795. Married — William Jude and Mary Tolley: St. George, Hanover Square.

Ó Taithligh As the name of a Co. Tyrone family it is now very rare. Tally is an occasional synonym of Tully, q.v., in Co. Longford. IF 279; SIF 143

Ó Taithligh As the name of a Co. Tyrone family it is now very rare. Tally is an occasional synonym of Tully, q.v., in Co. Longford. IF 279; SIF 143

(Irish) Grandson of Taithleach (quiet, peaceful).

Probably for Tilly, as Leland makes it rhyme with Pavely or Pavilly. This family - one of the most illustrious in Normandy - took their name from the castle and barony of Tilly, near Caen, of which they were Castellans (La Roque, Maison d’Harcourt, ii., 1662. 1994, 1999). Henry de Tilly held the castle in 1165 (Feod. Norm.). Ralph de Tilly held lands in Devon (Exon. Domesday); and his descendants continued there till the time of Richard Coeur de Lion, when they were seated at Woonford. In the beginning of the same reign Henry de Tilly, of West-Harptree-Tilly, in Somersetshire, paid ₤14 15s. as scutage for the King’s ransom. His descendants had several other possessions in the county: the last of them mentioned by Collinson is Lionel Tilly, Lord of Salthay, 13 Henry VI. In the time of Stephen the greater part of the confiscated barony of Geoffrey de Mandeville had been granted to De Tilly. Mersewood in Dorset was its caput baroniæ. But, after a suit pursued by three successive generations, Robert de Mandeville recovered it from Henry de Tilly in the beginning of King John’s reign.

In South Yorkshire we find “the family bearing the hereditary name of Tilly enjoying great interests in the dark days before the reign of Henry III.” - Hunter. Otho de Tilly was the Seneschal or Steward of Coningsburgh Castle under Hameline Earl Warren during the reigns of Stephen and Henry II.; and erected a cross on the market place at Doncaster, of which the remains (now removed to Hobcross Hill, a little south of the town), are still preserved, with the inscription: “Icest est la cruice Ote D Tilli A ki alme Deû en face merci. Amen.”

This Otho is a witness of the foundation charter of Kirkstall, 17 Stephen. He had a grant of Thorpe in Balne from William Vavasour, which was confirmed by William de Laci. By his wife, Mabel, he had an only daughter, Dionysia, married to Henry de Newmarch, or, according to the Pipe Roll of 31 Hen. II., to Henry de Puisac. Perhaps the latter was her second husband.

Otho de Tilly had a brother named Ralph, who apparently married a daughter of William Fitz Godric’s by his first wife, for this first wife’s only child, Sybil, was “the mother of Ralph and Roger de Tilly. The beautiful bearing of Fitz William, Lozengée Argent and Gules, which appears upon the most ancient seal now known to the family, and is still glowing in the windows of some of the churches of this deanery (Doncaster), was also used by the Tillis, differenced only by a canton.” - Ibid. “Robert was the first conqueror or purchaser of Rotherham: from him issued John Tilly, and from him Ralph Tilly, who forfeited and lost his lands of Rotherham; and King Henry, father of King Edward, entered on the same, and held them as his escheat.” - Dodsworth. John Tilly, in 1316, was Lord of Gomersall and Heckmonwick, and a Commissioner of Array in Morley Wapentake in 1322. - Palgrave's Parl. Writs. Henry Tilley, at the same date, was one of the Lords of Abbotsley, Huntingdonshire, and Floore and Glasthorpe in Northamptonshire. He served as knight of the shire for the former county in 1314; as Conservator of the Peace in 1324; and Commissioner of Array in 1325. He was summoned to serve against the Scots 1322, and three years later served in Guienne under the Earl of Warrenne. - Ibid.

This house is still represented in Normandy by one of its junior branches, that of Tilly-Blaru. Their coat-of-arms bears Or a fleur-de-lis Gules.

Tally: perhaps stands for Tilly. From the castle and barony of Tilly, near Caen. Ralph de Tilly held lands in Devon (Domesday). The name of Tilly remains, but it also signified a labourer.

In the reign of Elizabeth, Mr. George Tolley owned extensive house property in Evesham (M.). The name was represented in the parish of Upton Snodsbury a century ago (N.). Toly was a common name in Cambridgeshire in the reign of Edward I. (H. R.).