Origin of Torres

Recorded in the spellings of Tour, De la Tour, Latour, Torres, de la Torre, and diminutives such as Touret, Torricina etc, this is a surname which has to be described as 'European'. In origin it can be said to be Roman, and from the pre Christian period, however it is recorded in the many different spellings in every European country since the medieval times of the 13th century. The surname is both residential and status, and describes a person who lived in and probably owned a fortified castle or small fortress, one probably of a single tower.

The original word being derived from the Latin 'turris'. The plural version of the surname as in Tours or Towers derives from the city of Tours, in France. The city name originates from the pre 7th century Gaelic tribe called the 'Turones', who were prominent in the days after the fall of the Roman Empire in 410 a.d. Early examples of the surname are mainly found in England. These include Gilbert le Tower in the 1255 rolls of the county of Wiltshire, and William de la Tur, in the Assize Court Rolls of Cambridgeshire in the year 1260. Other recordings taken from church registers include in France Jeanne de la Tour, of Angers St Jacques, born on April 1st 1693, and in Mexico, Manuel de la Torre, at Ascuncion, Districto Federal, on December 4th 1747. The coat of arms has the blazon of a blue field charged with a single silver tower. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Elyas de Toure, which was dated 1202, in the Pipe Rolls of the county of Somerset, during the reign of King John of England, known as "Lackland", 1199 - 1216. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

Surname of toponymic origin, frequent and distributed throughout Spain, coming from the noun -torre-, common to Castilian, Galician, Catalan and Portuguese. There were, therefore, different Torres houses, not related to each other. Widespread throughout the Peninsula, and the Canary and Balearic Islands.

There are families of this surname that are considered to originate from the Royal House of Navarra. One of them has Sancho Fortún as its progenitor, and another is believed to be a descendant of the Infante Don Fernando, King of Castile.

Another of the oldest known families of the Torres surname, which settled in the city of Soria, it is claimed that it came from France and that its founder and progenitor was the French Constable Beltrán de Claquin.

The Torres families began to repopulate the former kingdoms of Mallorca and Valencia. In that of Valencia, the presence of Torres families is documented in the towns of Almenara (1248), its owner Bernat de Torres; Bocairent (1249-56), its owner Bartomeu de Torres; Borriana (1256-74), its owner Berenguer de Torres; Cocentaina (1269), its owner P. de Torres; Catí (1294-1350), its owner Ramón Torres; Oriola (1300-1314), its owners Jacme Torres and Johan de Torres; Valencia (1306-1316), its owners Bernat Torres, Guillem Torres and Salvador Torres; Vinarós (1311-1368), its owner Arnau Torres; Gandía (1373), its owner Bernat de Torres; Ademús (1379), its owner Jacme de Torres; Alcalá de Xivert (1379), its owners Domingo Torres, Domingo Torres, are fill and Guillamó; Soterna i Sa Horta (Horta de Valencia) (1379), its owner Bertomeu Torres; La Jana (1379), its owner Guiamó Torres; Massamagrell (1373), its owner Simó Torres; Sant Mateu (1379), its owners na Torres and R. Torres; Soterna (1379), its owner Torres; Dénia (1379), its owners Miquel Torres and Pere Torres; Teulada (1381), its owner Romeu Torres; El Boixar, its owner Bernat Torres; Forcall (1396), its owners Bernat Torres, Bernat Torres, masos, Francés Torres, Jacme Torres, Jachme Torres, Ferrer, Guiamó Torres and Ramón Torres; Morella (1396), its owners Francés de Torre, Domingo Torres, Domingo Torres, Gil de Torre, Jachme Torres, Johan Torres, savi, Matheu Torres, Pascual Torres and Pere Torres, miller; Palanques(1379), its owners Bernat Torres, stop and Bernat Torres, fill; Regaxol (Morella) (1396), its owners Matheu Torres; Salvassória (Morella) (1396), its owner Bernat Torres and Pere Torres; Riu de Caldes (Morella), its owner Domingo Torres; Vallibona, its owners Arnau Torres, Bertomeu Torres, Guiamó Torres, fill d'en Guiamó and Guiamó Torres, fill d'en Pere; Vilafranca del Maestrat (1396), its owners Francesch Torres, major, Francesch Torres, minor and Johan Torres; Castelló de la Plana (1398), its owner Guillem Torres; Sueca (1399), its owners Torres y Torres; Alacant (1421), its owners Bernat Torres and Jacme Torres; Morvedre (1421), its owners in Torres y na Berthomeua Torres i “two nines menors”; Ontinyent (1421), its owner Johan Torres; Sogorb (1421), its owners Domingo Ramo de Torres, Johan Ramo de Torres and Garcia Ramo de Torres, are fill R.; Xátiva (1421, its owners Andreu Torres, Guillem de Torres, generós, Johan de Torres, Loís de Torres, Loís de Torres, and Martí de Torres; Pego (1488), its owner Lluís Torres.

Mosen Jaume Febrer mentions in his Trovas the following Torres knights who accompanied King Jaime I in the conquest of Valencia:

«Three red towers, on a silver field, painted on his coat of arms Berenguer de Torres, a Catalan nobleman, Lord owner of the place of Torres, from whom he took his last name. This one came from Barcelona to our conquest. He deserved distinguished favors from King Don Jaime, in attention to how well he behaved in them, operating as he came out captain. In Valencia and Játiva he fought in the sight of the King, who did it from his war council, and that according to what I have heard, the Moorish rebel Aben-bacor surrendered for him »

«Five gold castles, on an azure field, put Benito de Torres on his coat of arms, a Catalan nobleman, who with thirty soldiers that he kept at his expense, for having distinguished himself in arms, made unheard of feats. After having cut down the terms of Alcalá, Forcall and Las Cuevas, he surrendered those places. Having assisted in the action of scaling the walls of Valencia, not without much work, King Jaime gave an outstanding award to the others, leaving Benito behind with the possessions that he gave him in the term of Ador »

In Catalonia the Torres had ancient and noble solar houses, among other places, in Cervera and in Puelles (Lleida), of which they were Lords.

In Majorca, in 1285 Pedro Torres, Deputy for the town of Calviá, swore allegiance and vassalage to Alfonso III of Aragon.

As stated in the "Dictionary ofAragonese heraldry", in the lands of Aragon bearers of this surname have been documented since the 11th century, originating from the brothers Íñigo and Martín Torres, at the service of Sancho Ramírez; it is the trunk of the Abarca de Bolea, Condado de las Almunias , Marquesate of Torres de Montes, Baronies of Clamosa, Siétamo and Rodellar.

The presence of other branches of the surname, all originating from Bolea, is also documented in the towns of Lamata, Abizanda, Bellestar, Ibieca, Junzano, Aguas, Puebla de Fantova, and also in the town of Albelda.

This surname occurred in abundance among the converted Jews who remained in Spain after the expulsion of this race ordered by the Catholic Monarchs.

He proved his nobility numerous times and at various times in the Orders of Santiago, Calatrava, Alcántara, Montesa, Carlos III and San Juan de Jerusalén, in the Royal Chancery of Valladolid and in the Royal Company of Marine Guards.