My earliest known ancestor at present is my seventh-great-grandfather, Edward Polly, who was born about 1700, possibly in Surry County, Virginia, and died before 28 March 1771 in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. At present, we do not know who his parents were. [1]
Some believe that our family lineage could go back to John Poley, born in England, northeast of London, in 1560. His descendant, Edward Polly, was in New England in the early 1700s, and he could be our ancestor. While some family history researchers show this relationship, the single most significant challenge is that I have not found any documented connection between Edward Polly, born in Massachusetts, and our Edward Polly, who appears later in Virginia. There is a name match but no documentation. Confirming (or not) this connection is one of my biggest challenges in family history. There are many people with the last name Pauley in England, Scotland, and Ireland today.
There is also speculation that our ancestry evolved from the French Huguenots, who had a colony in South Carolina and were believed to be in Southern Virginia by the mid-1700s, and that it included the family name Paulet, pronounced Pauley. However, there were also people in this area who spelled their names in the conventional way as early as, if not earlier than, the French Huguenots [2], as noted below.
Various Colonial Virginia records contain numerous early references to others named Pauley, with various spellings. These records lend credence to our ancestors being from Virginia rather than New England; however, more work is needed on this.
• John Pawley (surgeon) is listed in several land transactions in 1639. I'm unsure if this is the same person as the next entry, but it's likely. [3]• John Pawley is listed in the Isle of Wight County, Virginia, land records, where he sold 100 acres of land to Edward Wilmot on 13 May 1644. He purchased this land in 1638. [4]• Warwick County [5], Virginia Court Orders, 1647, Mr. John Pauley to take the oath of church warden. [6]• Joseph Polley was born in Virginia in 1650 (AGBI Index). He married Joanna Ken at North Farnham Parish, Richmond, Virginia, on May 4, 1677. [7]• William Polly participated in a land transaction of 1,000 acres on 26 December 1653 in Lancaster County, Virginia. [8] This property was on the north side of the Rappahannock River.• Warwick County, Virginia Records, 1663, James Pauley and others were directed by the court to view trespassing damage. [9] James is also listed in several other contemporary records there. • In May 2002, on the Library of Virginia website, I found a will, administrator's bond, and inventory documents for the estate of Samuel Polly of Henrico County from 1692, wherein his son Thomas Polly was named administrator. No one else is named in the will. I have copies and have transcribed these documents, but have yet to find a connection. • On 12 August 1669, John and James Poley were jurors in Nansemond County, Virginia. [10]• In 1686, Samuel Polly indentured two of his children in Henrico County, Virginia. [11]• On 10 February 1724/5 at Christ Church parish in Lancaster County, Virginia, John Polley was sued by Thomas Hineage for a debt of 1500 pounds of tobacco. [12]• John Polley and his spouse Francis's daughter, Betty, was christened on 26 Nov 1740 at North Farnham Parish, Richmond, Virginia. [13]• A “Widdow Polley” is listed on the rent roll for Richmond Co., VA, Farphan Parish (probably Farnham Parish), for 1746. • There is a Lewis A. Pauley on the 1790 Personal Tax List Index for New Kent County, VA• Coyle Polly (deceased) property transaction for 72 acres in Spotsylvania County, VA, 19 July 1797. [14]• There is one court record in Bedford County, VA, from 1771 listed as Pollie v. Bullard, with no first names given.• A Joseph Polley surveyed land in present-day Franklin County, VA (then Bedford County) in 1771, transferred it to Samuel Delaney in 1780, and it was granted to Delaney in 1784. This land was just north of Wirtz Road, which intersects US Route 122 south of Burnt Chimney. The land is on Maggotty (or Maggodee) Creek and Marley's Branch of Maggotty Creek. Jim is 90% confident that this was where Joseph Polley lived from the mid-1760s until he moved to Montgomery Co., circa 1780. It is believed to be Edward Sr.'s son. [15]
The index to Cavaliers and Pioneers: abstracts of Virginia land patents and grants, 1623-1800 [16], which, in the online volume, covers only 1666 and lists persons with variations of the Pauley spelling, including Paule, Paulet, Paulett, Pauley, Paulle, Pawley, Pawly, Polly, Pooly, and Powlett.
All of this lends credence to Virginia rather than a New England ancestry for our line of Pauleys, so there is much work to do. Unfortunately, the further back we go, the less documentation there is.

According to the Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd edition (2022), the surname Pauley is of English origin, perhaps from an unrecorded Middle English personal name Pauly or a pet form of Paul. German: a variant or a derivative of Paul. Compare Poley.

English (of Norman origin): habitational name from Pavilly (Seine‐Maritime, France). English: shortened form of Paulin from the Middle English and Old French personal name Paulin (from Latin Paulinus, a diminutive of Paulus, see Paul).

From Ireland?
Many families bearing the Pauley (or Pawley) name settled in Ireland during the 17th century, while others trace their heritage to Scots-Irish lineages that formed during the Ulster Plantation. Because the Pauley or Pawley name has historically been fluid, it can sometimes be found alongside variants such as Polley or Paul. [17]

According to Wikipedia, “The Plantation of Ulster (1609–1630s) was a massive, organized colonization of the northern Irish province of Ulster by English and Scottish Protestants. Initiated by King James I, the scheme was designed to secure the region after the English victory in the Nine Years' War and the 1607 "Flight of the Earls." [18] The colonists were required to be English-speaking Protestants, and most came from the Scottish Lowlands and Northern England. This area is now predominantly in Northern Ireland.

A list of common Ulster-Scots surnames [19] does not include ours by any spelling variation. But there are many that are familiar in our extended family tree.

In the 1800s, Pauleys were almost exclusively found in what is now Northern Ireland. [20]

Mid-19th-century records (like the primary valuation of tenements) showed Pauley households clustered in parishes such as Donaghcloney, Seapatrick, and Loughgilly.

From Scotland?
There are not many people in Scotland with the Pauley name today, most of whom are descended from people who came from England.

From England?
Pauley is an interesting and unusual name of Old English origin, which has two apparent origins. The first origin of the name acquired from the shortened form (son of, or a pet name) of the particular name Paul. It is interesting to see that in Welsh it is “Pawl,” but the name is related to the Romans' “Paulus,” which means “little.” Regardless, it is also possible that this surname is a Norman geographical name from “Pavilly” in the Seine-Maritime, derived from the Gallo-Roman personal name “Pavilius.” In the new era, the differentiation consists of Pauley, Paulley, and Pauly. In the region of Essex, one Wykkam Pawley was listed in the year 1545.

The origins of the surname Pauly were found in Dorset, where the family held a family seat at Charlton Marshall when Reginald de Paveli granted the king’s estates to Henry II. After that, King John gave Pillington of Norfolk to the kings of Pavelli, Roger, and Thomas.
The very first recorded spelling of the family was shown to be that of Geoffrey Pauly, dated about 1275, in the “Hundred Rolls of Cambridgeshire.” It was during the reign of King Edward I, known as “The Hammer of the Scots,” 1272-1307. The origin of surnames during this period became a necessity with the introduction of personal taxation. It came to be known as the Poll Tax in England. Surnames across the country began to develop, with unique and shocking variations on the original spelling. [21]

NOTES:[1] Edward Polly died before 30 August 1770, according to a court order of John Cook against Edward's estate. See Pittsylvania Co. Court Orders 1:230[2] Sigfus Olafson, The Descendants of Samuel and Patsey Pauley, Kith and Kin of Boone County, West Virginia, Vol. 1[3] Richard Randt, Polley Pointers newsletter, June 1995, p.11, lists the citations for these.[4] Isle of Wight County land transaction records, Book A, p. 517, as noted in the June 1995 issue of Polley Pointers.[5] Warwick County was a county in Southeast Virginia that was created from Warwick River Shire, one of eight shires created in the Virginia Colony in 1634. It became the City of Newport News on July 16, 1952.[6] As transcribed in The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 1, No. 1, Jan.-Mar. 1957, edited and published by John Dorman, Washington, DC[7] Virginia Marriages to 1800, online at Ancestry.com [8] Cavaliers and pioneers; abstracts of Virginia land patents and grants, 1623-1800 (this volume only goes to 1666), by Nugent, Nell Marion; Virginia State Library; Virginia Genealogical Society; p. 254; online at https://archive.org/details/cavalierspioneer00nuge/page/254/mode/2up?q=Polly [9] As transcribed in The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 18, No. 1, Jan.-Mar. 1974, edited and published by John Dorman, Washington, DC[10] See #3 above[11] See #3 above[12] As transcribed in The Virginia Genealogist, Vol. 19, No. 3, Jul.-Sep. 1975, p. 163, edited and published by John Dorman, Washington, DC[13] Virginia Births and Christenings, 1584-1917, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VRRH-6VJ: 28 January 2020), John Polley in entry for Betty Polley, 1740.[14] Virginia Land, Marriage, and Probate Records, 1639-1850[15] January 2026 emails from researcher Jim McGuire[16] See #8 above[17] https://coadb.com/surnames/pauly-arms.html [18] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantation_of_Ulster [19] https://discoverulsterscots.com/history-culture/who-are-ulster-scots/surnames-ulster [20] https://www.johngrenham.com/findasurname.php?surname=Pauley&search_type=variants [21] https://coadb.com/surnames/pauly-arms.html
Updated June 6, 2026