Bristol Coat of Arms
by John E. Bristol
In pre-Norman times the name that became Bristow was spelled in several ways, a la Brycgstow, etc., and was of Anglo-Saxon derivation. The name means "the place of the bridge, or the place where the ford in the river is located." From this was derived the name of the city first named Bristow and later spelled Bristol. The spelling of "bristol" did not occur until the mid-1500s and is a consequence of a movement by scribes to Latinize many English words. Hence it is called scribes' Latin.
Coats of Arms go back to when men first began to bear arms-swords, knives, spears and bow and arrows. At first they bore no images, but for some reason, artistic?, people later began to paint images on them perhaps to identify their own, or to scare their enemies, or even for religious reasons-either on a personal or clan basis, or both. Through the generations a formal way of representing arms was developed by the various "nations" which used them. In England they became a source of tax revenue for the King and over the years fell into great disuse.
There is the strongest tradition among the Bristol/Bristow people that our origin was not from this name-Bristow. Instead, it is believed, and with some substantial documentation, that our families began with one Stephen FitzHamon a descendant of the Hamon Dapifer, Sheriff of Kent, who was with William the Conqueror at Hastings, 1066. This sheriff was a cousin of William. His father, Hamon Dentatus, was killed in a large family feud at Val es Dunes, 1047, over William's right to the throne of the Normans.
Stephen, great-grandson of the Sheriff of Kent, received a grant of the Parish of Burstow, a township just south of London, and styled himself, Stephen FitzHamon de Burstowe. The documentation referred to above shows a direct line of descent all the way to the 1600s. The name was at first "de Burstowe", then "Burstow", and strangely in the 1500s it became "Bristowe" after the pattern of the large City of Bristol.
The name "Burstow" does not mean the same thing as Bristol/Bristow. It means "the place of the moats." The bur- meaning, "moat", and the stow meaning "place." Burstow Parish has many manors protected by moats affirming this meaning to be the original one.