Liversage

This interesting and unusual name of medieval English origin is a dialectal variant of the locational name Liversedge from a place so called in Yorkshire. The earliest recording of this placename is in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Livresec", in "The Memorials of the Abbey of Fountains", in 1198 as "Liversegge", and in the Curia Rolls of 1212 as "Luvereseg". Liversedge is a derivation of the Old English personal name "Leofhere", (composed of the elements "leof", dear, beloved, plus "here", army) and "eca", a ridge. This name is found in records of those who emigrated to Virginia, with one Richard Liversidge aged twenty four years, who sailed aboard the "Assurance" from the Port of London on July 24th 1635. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert de Luverseg, which was dated 1212, in the "Curia 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 known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.