Recorded in many forms including Suler, Suller and Sullers (English), Schuler, Schuller, Schulman and Schuyler (German and Dutch), this is a surname which is ultimately of Roman (Latin) origins. It derives from the Latin word 'schola' meaning a clan or sect, although several centuries later when first recorded as 'schule' in Germany, the meaning had become occupational. As such it was used to describe a scholar or student, one in training for the priesthood. In later medieval times the meaning seems to have changed again to that of a teacher, and at various times it also seems to have become confused with the Hebrew word 'shul', which also strictly means a scholar, but also has the transerred meaning of a synagogue or place of religious instruction. In America it is mostly recorded as Schuyler, where it is of Dutch origin. Peiterse Schuyler was a very early settler to what was then called New Amsterdam, but later became New York, when he married there in the year 1650. In England we have recordings from the same period which include Henery Suler at the church known as St Botolphs Bishopgate in the city of London, on November 12th 1637, and Philip Suller who married Ann Little at the church of St James Clerkenwell, also in the city of London, on May 20th 1668, in the reign of King Charles 11nd (1660 - 1685).

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