Colonel Jehu Eyre - Ancestry to William the Conqueror?

When looking at this, this article may be helpful:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyre_legend

The legend of the person who was the founder of the Eyre and Ayre families, and who was supposedly previously known by the surname "Truelove" (or "True Love"), is a story that appears in genealogies. However, there is no definitive historical evidence confirming the existence of this person.

The family legend states that he accompanied William the Conqueror to Britain during the Norman Invasion, and fought alongside him at the Battle of Hastings (14 October 1066). When William was thrown from his horse his helmet was driven into his face, suffocating him, but Truelove was able to remove the helmet and save William's life. He suffered dearly for his bravery, sustaining an injury so severe that his entire leg had to be amputated.

After the battle William told him "thou shalt hereafter instead of Truelove be called Eyre because thou hast given me the air I breathe."[1] (1 is a dead link)

No idea if this family is related to the Col., but nice pictures. :)

http://burkeseastgalway.com/eyre-of-eyrecourt-etc-part-i/

The Eyres (Ayres, etc) families do go back quite a ways, but tracing back to the Conquest is a bit of a reach. The pun that "makes" the "family legend" works *only in English*.

Surname Database gives several possible derivations (they are not consistent between the A and E forms, nor between the ones with and without a terminal S). "Eyre" they claim to be Old Norse and locational, probably from Cumberland, deriving from "the Old Norse term "eyrara", meaning "gravel-bank stream or river"." http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Eyre

Other derivations given under other variants:
* "a nickname for a man who was well known to be the heir to a title or fortune, deriving from the Middle English "eir, eyr", a development of the Old French "(h)eir" meaning heir";

* a locational surname from a place called Ayr in South West Scotland, deriving from the Old Norse "eyrr" meaning tongue of land, gravelly bank, plus the suffix "s" denoting of "the place";

* a patronymic form of the Middle English personal name "Aier, Aer", itself coming from the Olde English pre 7th Century "Ealhhere", a compound of the elements "eal(h)", old, and "heri", army

http://www.surnamedb.com/

Here is some other information I found.

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/EYRE/1999-09/0936384319

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyre_family

The prose is a little Lush in the archiver quote, with comments on the errors also. :)

This is fun!

I found some more information. Eyre was originally Le Heyr.

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=pjmpj...

Galfridus Le Heyr

(no need to enter new profiles)

The prose is much more that a "little Lush" here! I descend from a 16th century member of the North Lees, Derbyshire, branch, which is connected to the creation of "Jane Eyre", by Charlotte Bronte. https://useurohistory.blogspot.com/