Horsefield

Horsefield
Recorded in the spellings of Horsfield and Horsefield, this is an English residential surname which seems, at first glance, to be quite straight forward. It appears to describe a person who lived by fields used by horses or more likely from a village of the same name. The problem is that there is no such place as Horsefield or Horsfield, and logically it is very unlikely that land would be kept specifically for horses unless it was either a race course, or a stud. Even then the land would, almost certainly, have been used for other animals in the grazing cycle practised since time immemorial. An alternative suggestion which has much merit is that the name relates to a now 'lost' medieval village or possibly villages. Over five thousand British surnames are believed to originate from places, whose only memory today lies in the surviving surname. This may well be one of them. Canon Charles Bardsley, the famous Victorian etymologist suggested that the name was from the north of England, and thought that it might have been from Yorkshire, as he was certain that it was not from Lancashire. It seems however that the name is quite rare wherever it is found, there were only eight recordings in Lancashire and six in Yorkshire in the year 1880, and even fewer in London. These London records may however hold a clue to the name origin as the first known recording may be that of William Horsefold, as spelt, at the famous church of St James Clerkenwell, in 1596. Was a Horsfield originally a Horsefold? We do not know, but certainly in 1795 there was no argument, Elizabeth Horsefield marrying a Richard Thornton at St Georges Chapel, Hanover Square, London, in that year.

Surnames reference. 2013.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Horsefield's Fruit Bat — Conservation status Least Concern (IUCN 2.3) Scientific classification …   Wikipedia

  • Pendeen — infobox UK place country = England latitude= 50.1521 longitude= 5.6618 official name= Pendeen population = shire district= Penwith shire county = Cornwall region= South West England constituency westminster= Falmouth and Camborne post town =… …   Wikipedia

  • Conrose Field — Conrose Field, also known as the Horsefield , is a Canadian urban park in Nova Scotia s Halifax Regional Municipality on the western border of the Halifax Peninsula. Located south of Jubilee Road, the park s western boundary is formed by the CN… …   Wikipedia

  • Paraechinus nudiventris — Paraec …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Horsfield — Recorded in the spellings of Horsfield and Horsefield, this is an English residential surname which seems, at first glance, to be quite straight forward. It appears to describe a person who lived by fields used by horses or more likely from a… …   Surnames reference

  • Oxidative phosphorylation — The electron transport chain in the mitochondrion is the site of oxidative phosphorylation in eukaryotes. The NADH and succinate generated in the citric acid cycle are oxidized, releasing energy to power the ATP synthase. Oxidative… …   Wikipedia

  • Succinate dehydrogenase — (ubiquinone) Subunits: SdhA, SdhB, SdhC and SdhD Identifiers EC number …   Wikipedia

  • Third Girl — infobox Book | name = Third Girl title orig = translator = image caption = Dust jacket illustration of the first UK edition author = Agatha Christie cover artist = Kenneth Farnhill country = United Kingdom language = English series = genre =… …   Wikipedia

  • List of mammals in Thailand — This is a list of the mammal species recorded in Thailand. There are 264 mammal species in Thailand, of which 3 are critically endangered, 11 are endangered, 24 are vulnerable, and 2 are near threatened. 1 of the species listed for Thailand is… …   Wikipedia

  • List of mammals in Nepal — This is a list of the mammal species recorded in Nepal. There are 167 mammal species in Nepal, of which 1 is critically endangered, 11 are endangered, 20 are vulnerable, and 4 are near threatened. [This list is derived from the IUCN Red List… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”