Merrifield

This is an English locational name from any of the various places thus called, such as Merryfield in Devon and Cornwall. The name derives from the Olde English elements 'murige' meaning 'pleasant' or 'agreeable' and 'feld' - a pasture or open country, and was applied to one dwelling in pleasant pastures. In the modern idiom the name has four spelling variations Merrifield, Merrefield, Meryfield and Mirfield. A further possibility is that the name is a corruption of Maryfield. 'The site of Salisbury Cathedral is so called in Medieval documents, being a corruption of St. Mary's Field' - Patronymica Britannica (1860). The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John de Merefeld. which was dated 1273 The Hundred Rolls of Somerset. during the reign of Edward 1 The Hammer of the Scots, 1272 - 1307. 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.