The origins of Byrness name

 

Extract from an Anglo-Saxon dictionary

Byrness takes it's name from an Anglo-Saxon word 'byrignes' meaning burial. A variation on that word adopted by the Scots was 'Berynes' which is in the old Scots dictionary. There have been many spellings of Byrness, and in the 1500s it is known to have been Berrynes.

1808 dictionary

The earliest writing of the word 'Berrynes' appears in a written statement of complaint of a border reiver incident reported to officials at Alnwick around the 1580s regarding a theft of livestock:

Early mention of Border reiving in "The Berrynes"

The name 'Berrynes' was used exclusively as a reference to the burial ground and not a place name where people would have resided. Not until people began to settle in the nearby vicinity of the burial ground did the name Byrness become a place name and begin appearing on maps. In the Borderlands survey in 1604 there is no mention of it by name as it wasn't relevant to the survey, but the burial ground lay in amongst what were called "the summer grazing grounds" which included to the south of the burial ground Cottonshope and to the north Spithope Haugh. In the Elsdon register of burials of which the only surviving one begins in 1672 mentions in 1696 the burial of Mary the wife of William Hall of Birrines buried at Birrynes, so this is possibly the first mention of Byrness as a place of residence as opposed to a burial ground. The name as we know it now with the spelling "Byrness" seems to coincide with the Building of Saint Francis Church on the site in 1793

first mention in Elsdon register of someone residing in Byrness with two different spellings in the same sentence "Birrines" the place and "Birrynes" the burial ground

"Berins Hill" an Oxfordshire town with similar origins

 

The geographical position of Northumberland, especially the border counties such as Redesdale results in the adoption of Scots vocabulary. Northumberland during the 1200s was partt of Scotland. Below is from Wikipedia page entitled "Early Scots":

"During this period a number of words of Anglo-Saxon origin, such as anerly (alone), berynes (grave)"

Byrness through the years has had many different spellings before settling for todays. Perhaps some of the many variations came through errors in church entries: Berrenes, Berryness, Buriness, Buryness, Biriness, Burness, Birness, Birrines, Binis, Berynes, and others.