Lomax

Recorded in many spellings including Lomas, Lomax, Lumox, Lummus, Lummis, Loomis, and the London area dilalectals Lomath, Lumeth. and Lowmoth, this is an English surname. It is locational and originates from a "lost" medieval village near to the town of Bury in the county of Lancashire. Recorded in the Middle Ages as "Lumhalghs", the component elements of the name are believed to be the Olde English pre 7th Century word "lumm", meaning a pool, and reflected in the local term "lum" denoting a well for collecting water in a mine, plus "-halh", a nook or recess. It is estimated that some three thousand villages and hamlets have disappeared from the maps in Britain in the past five centuries, and this is a good example. The prime cause of these "disappearances" was the enforced clearing and dispersal of the inhabitants to make way for sheep pastures at the height of the wool trade in the 14th Century, along with natural causes such as the Black Death of 1348. Early examples of the surname recording include Elizabeth Lomas, christened at Farnworth in Lancashire on November 2nd 1549, Alice Lomax and Roger Wroe who were married at Middleton by Oldham, also Lancashire on January 15th 1562, whilst in London Elizabeth Luemoth was christened at St Georges Chapel, Hanover Square, Westminster, on December 10th 1764, and Matthew Lomath at the church of St Andrews Undershaft on August 7th 1791. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop," often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.