Fly is a village in Normandy, first written down in 864. Eleven centuries later the name is on a road sign in Brentwood, Tennessee, and on this firm.
The name begins as ground, not as a family: Flaviacum, later Fly, a village above the valley of the Epte in Normandy. Northmen under Rollo razed its abbey around 902. The abbey of Saint-Germer-de-Fly was rebuilt, and it still stands. So does the village.
A clerk of the Norman Exchequer records a payment against the name of Richard de Flagie. From here the name moves the way names move: carried, respelled, written down by strangers. Flagie becomes Flie, then Flye, then Fly.
Three bearers of the name, Oda, Ralph, and Roger Flie, stand in the English Hundred Rolls. Records this old prove presence and nothing more.
West of London the family comes into focus: wills at Hillingdon in 1555 and Stanwell in 1622, husbandmen and yeomen working the common fields. Two customs repeat across the generations. The plough team goes to the eldest son, and there is a clause for the parish poor.
John Flye lands in Virginia, entered in the Virginia Patent Book on 22 August 1637. The English trail points to a Stanwell yeoman's son who vanishes from every Middlesex record at the same moment. That link is strong evidence, not proof, and the search continues in the London archives.
William Fly of Isle of Wight County, Virginia leaves a deathbed will and an inventory: one horse, three cows, five shoats, a gun, pewter, and two feather beds. From him to the present day, the American line is documented at every generation.
Rev. John Fly settles Middle Tennessee. In 1813 his son Lawrence signs the Creek War muster declaration with his mark and carries a musket to Fayetteville.
Sterling Brown Fly farms Williamson County. The family cemetery where he rests is still kept, and a relative still holds the key. Fly Road still carries the name on the Brentwood map.
Jeremiah Moore Fly Jr., known as Judge Jerry, carries the line through a new century, 1897 to 1955.
Dr. John Brown Fly III works from Readyville, Tennessee, the twelfth documented American generation, with his son Gabe. Still makers: software and systems, writing, forged steel.
Thomas of Stanwell signed his will with a mark in 1622. Lawrence of Williamson County signed his the same way in 1855, two hundred and thirty three years later. The first signature in the family record is "Tho: fflye," written by a Hillingdon wheelwright in 1643.
Husbandmen and yeomen. A wheelwright. Pewterers of London. A draper. A currier. Today it is software, writing, and Damascus steel forged by hand.
Strength in the joining
The family motto. It has held at every joint of the record that has been tested.
