4                        ANCESTRY, LIFE, AND  TIMES  OF
Of the first two John Sibleys, the one at Charlestown, the other
at Salem, we shall speak more hereafter. It is enough for our
present purpose to state, that in the lines of both John and
Eichard Sibley of Salem are found a multitude of men and
women of high distinction, adorning the annals of the nation,
in all the various walks of private and of public life.
The name '' Sibley " is a name of long standing in English his-
tory, as it is of various orthography, betraying differences as
marked in its development as are the differences between our
English now and that of the times of Spenser and Chaucer.
In the successive genealogies, heraldries, and public records
of English history, it assumes a multitude of variations; as,
. "Sibell," "Sibille," "Sibli," "Sible," "Siblie," "Sibile,"
"Sibili," "Sibilie," "Sibely," "Sibly," "Sibley," "Seble,"
"Sybly," "Sybele," "Sybeli," "Sybyle," "Sybely," with an
"alias Sybery," the liquid "r" being interchangeable with
the liquid "1," and moreover drawn into close relation with
"Sileby," by means of the marked agreement between the
armorial bearings of the families of "Sileby" and "Sybly."
The etymology of the name is somewhat conjectural. It is
certainly not of Greek derivation cognate with "Sibyl"
from the Doric genitive of "Zeus" (Sios), Jupiter, and
"Boule," the counsel or oracle of Jove, which the ancient
Sibyl professed to be, even though we find the names "Sibyl
Sibley," and "Sibylla" in the published pedigrees. It can
hardly be of Norman derivation, meaning a "field of
wheat," "Si," and "ble," since this violates the syllabic
division of the word. It is doubtless true that some of the
family were found in England at the time of William the
Conqueror, but the genealogies do not favor a French origin.
The word is clearly Anglo-Saxon, from "Sib," which means
"alliance," "relationship," "peace," and "leagh," contracted
to "lea," contracted to "ly," which means something laid down,
and, therefore, either a " law," or a "land," i. e. territory. The
line in Gray's Elegy, "The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the
lea," gives us one of the senses plainly. The other sense, cog-
nate to that of the German "legen," to lay, and hence, a rule
laid down to go by, a laic, is familiar to all.x The meaning of
the word "Sibley" is, therefore, either (1) Law of Peace, or
Peace Law, or (2) Land of Peace, or Peace Land, i. e. Alliance
1 Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon and English Dictionary, pp. 155, 200.