Huxham

This unusual surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name either from the parish and village of Huxham near Exeter in Devonshire, or from the hamlet of Huxham in mid Somerset. The former place, recorded as "Hochesham" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as "Hokesham" in the Feet of Fines for that county, dated 1212, was so called from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name "Hoc", also found as an initial element in Hoxton, Middlesex, with "ham", village, estate, manor, homestead; hence, "Hoc's ham (homestead)". Locational surnames, such as this, were originally given to local landowners, and the lord of the manor, and especially as a means of identification to those who left their birthplace to settle elsewhere. On July 8th 1593, Margeret Huxham and Jezrael Buttler were married in Totnes, Devonshire, and on November 17th 1606, Richard, son of John Huxham, was christened in Malborough, Devonshire. John Huxham (1692 - 1768), physician and F.R.S., 1739, became the Copley medallist for observations on antimony in 1755. A Coat of Arms granted to the Huxham family of Devonshire in 1623 is a silver shield with a black lion rampant. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Huxham, which was dated June 23rd 1548, in "Marriage Registers of Dartington", Devonshire, during the reign of King Edward V1, known as "The Boy King", 1547 - 1553. 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.