Origins of surname
References for this surname on otherwise very reliable websites are somewhat vague. The Surname Database, which we regularly refer to, says: 'The nickname when applied was apparently given to someone who was particularly light-hearted or frivolous in his behaviour, although a further and more logical suggestion is that it may have applied to people who were good at sport and games'.
This seems to be nothing more than guesswork, and there appears to be no evidence to link the family name to the word commonly applied today to a child's plaything. Several other sources suggest that 'toy' was a Medieval nickname for a light-hearted or frivolous person.
Dictionary.com dates the origin of 'toy' about 1275-1325, and suggests that it is 'of obscure origin'. The Surname Database suggests that this is one of the earliest of all surnames, which can trace its origin to a personal name around 200 AD. It refers to a record for Aldwin Toie of Devon, in the 1184 Pipe Rolls.
Much research of the Toy families of Cornwall was done by The Venerable Thomas Barfett in his book The Toy family of Cornwall. He was Archdeacon of Hereford from 1977 to 1982, but spent the greater part of his ministry in Cornwall. Thomas Barfett was married to Edna Toy. He had been involved in some 50 years of family research and was a past president of the Cornwall Family History Society.
He raised questions regarding the origin of the Toy/Toye/Toit/du Toit family of Cornwall, with possible ties to the French Huguenots who arrived in England after 1574. One belief is the family name Toy is of Norman/Viking Origin, descending from a Viking of Normandy named Toui le Prud, who has been well researched. Another belief is the name originates from the 'Toye' French Huguenots who arrived in England after 1574.
We have to conclude that 'nobody really knows'.
Early records
John M Toy (what the M stood for seems to have been lost) was shown as 'hotel keeper' of the Greve de Lecq Hotel in the 1851 census. He appears to have arrived in Jersey about 1845 with his wife Elizabeth Hodge and eight of their 12 children, having moved from Helston in Cornwall, where he was born in 1814, the son of Stephen and Anne Secombe. We are not certain whether he owned the hotel. An advertisement in 1852, when the establishment was called the North-Western Hotel, describes him as proprietor, a term which was often used in the mid-19th century to describe a person running a business, whether or not they owned it.
His family tree is linked below. He was not, however, the first to bear the name in Jersey. John Robert, the son of John and Marie Toy, was baptised in Grouville in 1750, and there were further baptisms of Ann, the daughter of John and Mary and Edward, son of Henry and Sarah, in St Helier in 1806 and 1808 respectively.
Three births of Toy daughters were registered in St Mary between 1842 and 1861, before John and Elizabeth's final five children were born in St Peter and St Mary between 1845 and 1860.
Variants
- Toy
- Toye
- Toie
Family records
Family trees
- Descendants of John Toy
- Descendants of Robert Toy Added 2018
- Descendants of Frederick Toy Added 2018
Church records
- Toy baptisms in Jersey
- Toy marriages in Jersey (groom)
- Toy marriages in Jersey (bride)
- Toy burials in Jersey
Great War service
- Frederick Edgar Toy (1871- ) (St O) son of Charlotte Jane, CSM, Labour Corps
Burial records
Family album
John Matthew Toy, a portrait by Clarence Ouless
Mary Elizabeth Toy, nee Hodge, a Ouless portrait
Jane Husband Toy, daughter of John and Mary
The Toy and Hodge families: back left, John Matthew Toy; front left, Mary Elizabeth Hodge, his wife; middle front, Jane Toy, their daughter; back right, William Hodge, father of Mary Elizabeth; front right: Grace Phillips, her mother
Rose Sarah Toy (1905-1962), from a different family to the above
Francesia Corbel, nee Toy
Francesia with her mother
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Family businesses
1948
Tips
The church record links above will open in a new tab in your browser and generate the most up-to-date list of each set of records from our database. These lists replace earlier Family page baptism lists, which were not regularly updated. They have the added advantage that they produce a chronological listing for the family name in all parishes, so you do not have to search through A-Z indexes, parish by parish.
We have included some important spelling variants on some family pages, but it may be worth searching for records for a different spelling variant. Think of searching for variants with or without a prefix, such as Le or De. To search for further variants, or for any other family name, just click on the appropriate link below for the first letter of the family name, and a new tab will open, giving you the option to choose baptism, marriage or burial records. You will then see a list of available names for that type of record and you can select any name from that list. That will display all records of the chosen type for that family name, and you can narrow the search by adding a given name, selecting a parish or setting start and end dates in the form you will see above. You can also change the family name, or search for a partial name if you are not certain of the spelling
The records are displayed 30 to a page, but by selecting the yellow Wiki Table option at the top left of the page you can open a full, scrollable list. This list will either be displayed in a new tab or a pop-up window. You may have to edit the settings of your browser to allow pop-up windows for www.jerripediabmd.net. For the small number of family names for which a search generates more than 1,500 records you will have to refine your search (perhaps using start or end dates) to reduce the number of records found.
New records
Since August 2020 we have added several thousand new records from the registers of Roman Catholic, Methodist and other non-conformist churches. These will appear in date order within a general search of the records and are also individually searchable within the database search form
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