[Retlaw]

Originally Posted by kestrelx

Who's he? I think there was a man who ran Spires farm before Straks called Riley - am I right?

If you look back through the posts you will see that the place was called Riley before the Norman Conquest, a lot of the place names in the area retained their names especially when the monks of Kirkstall started aquiring lands in the area, Riley was one of their vaccaries, anoter was Antley, when the monks left, the lands reverted back to the de Lacey family, he appointed one of his stewards to oversee the place he was called Robert he took the name of the place where he lived, and became Robert of Riley, (Robert de Riley) over tha past 900 years there may have been many Riley's who lived there.
Before the1500's very few people had a surname, a man would just be known as Jack of Barnfield, if he had a son he was usually referred to as Jacks son, some took the name of their trade Sam the Smith, Herbert the Tailor, John the Harper. Etc Etc.