Gabbat

This interesting and unusual surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin and is a locational name from a so called "lost" place, likely to have once been situated in Lancashire, where the name is numerous. The derivation is from an Old English pre 7th Century personal name "Gabba", with "cot", a cottage. The phenomenon of the "lost" village, of which, it is estimated, there are between seven and ten thousand that have disappeared from British maps, was generally as a result of enforced land clearance to make way for sheep pasture, at the height of the wool industry, in the 11th Century and 12th Century, as well as the more natural causes, such as war and plague, for example the Black Death of 1348. In the modern idiom the surname has several variant spellings Gabbat, Gabbatt, Gabbot, and Gabbott. Among the sample recordings in Lancashire are the christening of Ann Gabbat on July 1st 1596 at Brindle, and of John Gabbott on February 20th 1598 also at Brindle. A Coat of Arms granted to the family in 1568, awarded by Macimilian, the Emperor, for services in the field of battle, has the blazon of a red shield, a gold griffin segreant, holding a flag thereon a double-headed eagle displayed. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Elizabeth Gabbott (marriage to John Foster), which was dated January 15th 1545, at Whalley, Lancashire, during the reign of King Henry V111, known as "Good King Hal", 1509 - 1547. 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.