The name Heap emanates from a Robert de Heap, who founded a settlement now known as Heap, a village near to Heywood , Lancashire. Robert de Hep was a witness to a number of Charters mainly those of Roger de Montbegon, the Lord of Hornby Castle near Lancaster (1210). Montbegon was one of the 25 Surety Barons to the Magna Carta. The only other early reference I have found is that it was the original name for the village of Shap and Shap Abbey, Cumbria. "Hep" or "Hep Hep Hep" was the battle cry of the Crusaders ( "HEIROSOLYMA EST PERDITH"). Members of Robert de Hep's "clan" settled around Rochdale, Oldham, Stalybridge, Mottram and Prestbury. He was murdered in 1246 by a Peter Carrite. It is known that he owned land at Failsworth ( between Oldham and Manchester) which he sold to Robert Grelley the Baron of Manchester and at Leire in Leicestershire. Charles Heape of Rochdale commissioned a private book on the History of the Heape name. Copies can be found in the libraries of Oldham, Rochdale and the Library of Lancaster University.