Berrick

This interesting surname is of English locational origin from a number of places e.g. Berwick in Kent and Shropshire, Berrick in Oxfordshire, Barwick in Norfolk and the West Riding of Yorkshire, etc., which are recorded respectively in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Berewic, Berewic, Berewiche, Bereuuica and Bereuuith. All the placenames derive from the Old English pre 7th Century "bere" meaning barley plus "wic" an outlying farm; hence "a granary lying some distance away from the main village". The surname is first recorded in the latter half of the 13th Century, (see below). One Edward Barwyk, appears in "The Register of the Freemen of the City of York", 1463. In the modern idiom the surname has many variant spellings including Barwick, Barrick, Berrick, Borwick, etc.. On December 9th 1651, Mary, daughter of Edward and Sarah Berwick, was christened at St. Margaret's, Westminster. The marriage of Elizabeth Berwick and William Damerell took place on August 14th 1652, at St. Dunstan's, Stepney. John Berwick married Frances Major on February 9th 1684, at St. Mildred Roultry with St. Mary Colechurch, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Laurence de Berewyke, which was dated 1278, in the Hundred Rolls of Oxfordshire, during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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.