SAYER, whence SAYERS. An assayer of metals. Also an Anglo-Norman personal name, as Saher de Quincy, the famous Earl of Winchester. Sayer and Sayere in the Hund. Rolls, without the prefix le, seem to give the latter derivation the preference. With regard to the former, Kelham observes, that " when Domesday ■was compiled, there was always a fire ready in the Exchequer, and if they liked not the allay of the money, they burnt it, and then ■weighed it." Hence the expression in Domesday, ' Lib. LVI arsas et pensatas' — o61b. burnt and weighed. — Kelham's Domesday, p. 157. The Sayer would therefore be a crown officer who assayed the precious metals.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.