SEELEY. SEELY. This word, in the forms of scl and sill, occurs in 0. English writers from Chaucer to Jlilton, in the sense of harmless or simple. Tlie word silhj, the etymology of which has been debated, is niucli perverted from its original meaning, and the word ' simple' is now undergoing a similar degradation. 2. Ferguson derives it from A- Sax. sc'l, prosperous.

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