Elderfield

This interesting name is of English origin and is a dialectal variant of a locational name Eldersfield, from a place so called in Worcestershire. The derivation of this name is from the Old English pre 7th Century "ellern" an elder tree, and "feld", open country, a plain. The earliest recordings of this placename appears as "Yldresfeld" in the Saxon Chartularies of 972, as "Eldresfelle" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and in the Pipe Rolls of Worcestershire in 1156 Ederesfeld, and in 1195 Eldredesfeld. During the Middle Ages when it was increasingly necessary for people to migrate from their birth place to seek work elsewhere and it became customary to adopt the place name as a means of identification, thus resulting in a wide dispersal of the name. One Thomas Elderfield the infant son of John and Ann Elderfield was christened on December 22nd 1700 at St. Andrew's, Holborn, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Edward Elderfeild, (christened), which was dated 13th September 1621, Putney Church Records, London, during the reign of King James I, of England and VI of Scotland, 1603 - 1625. 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.