Gomersal

This interesting name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving from the place called "Gomersal" in West Yorkshire, in "the parish of Birstall" near Dewsbury. The placename is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Gomershale", and in circa 1250 as "Gumereshal", and means "Guthmaer's nook or recess", derived from the Old English pre 7th Century personal name "Guthmaer", composed of the elements "guth", battle, and "maer", fame, with "halh", a hollow, nook, or recess, often in the northern counties a piece of flat land in a bend of a river. Locational surnames were used especially by those former inhabitants of a place who moved to another area, and were best identified by the name of their birthplace. One, John Gomersall married Marie Langford at St. John's, Hackney, London, on May 17th 1599. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Hugo de Gomersall, which was dated 1379, in the "Yorkshire Poll Tax Returns", during the reign of King Richard 11, known as "Richard of Bordeaux", 1377 - 1399. 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.