Goldsbrough

Recorded in several spellings including Goldsberry, Goldsborough, Goldsbrough, Goldsbrow, Gouldsbrough, Gouldsborough, and others, this is an English surname. It is locational from either of the places called Goldsborough in North and West Yorkshire. The North Yorkshire village is first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Goldeburgh, and means "Golda's fort", from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name Golda and burg, a fortified place. Goldsborough in West Yorkshire appears as Godenesburg in the Domesday Book, and means "Godhelm's fort", from the Olde English or Anglo-Saxon name Godhelm. The surname recordings atken from various surviving charters and and registers includes John Goldsborough and Lawrence Goldsberry, both recorded in the Hearth Tax rolls for the county of Suffolk in 1674, and John Goldsbrow also of Suffolk in 1786. In 1695 Christopher Goldsbrough married Sibbel Lewis at St. James Clerkenwell, in the city of London, whilst much earlier, the first recorded spelling of the family name may be that of Walter de Goldisburc. This was dated 1206, in the "Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire", during the reign of King John, known as "Lackland", 1199 - 1216. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as the Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.