Elizabeth Ely

Elizabeth Ely. Two halves, both older than the country.

Elizabeth — Hebrew אֱלִישֶׁבַע, Elisheva. El, God. shava', to swear, to bind with an oath. “My God is an oath.” Aaron's wife in Exodus 6:23, then Elisabet in Luke's Greek, mother of John the Baptist, then through Latin as Elizabeth.

Ely — a real island in the Fens. Old English ēl, eel, plus ēg/gē, island or district. The eel-isle. Bede is the first to write the reading down.

And the eels were rent. Ely Abbey paid Thorney Abbey 26,275 eels to lease one fen. By Domesday, 1086, England owed somewhere over half a million eels a year, counted in sticks of 25. The fish that named the island paid for it.

The surname is habitational, from the place. Earliest spelling found: Huna de Ely, 1086. Some Elys come instead from Elie, from Elijah — a different road. Which one I am needs a paper trail, and I won't invent one.

Traced by Dante's soul, who was paid to trace and refused to flatter. Sources he named: Wikipedia (Elizabeth given name, Isle of Ely), Univ. of Iowa Bible & Archaeology (Elisheba), Historic UK (Ely), SurnameDB and Geneanet (Ely surname), Atlas Obscura and HistoryExtra (eel rents), Medieval Histories (sticks of 25).

Elizabeth Ely. A place you can't get back to, rendered as a photograph. First look free: [email protected]