Misselbrook

This unusual and interesting name is of English locational origin, from a now "lost" place called "Misselbrook" thought to have been situated in Hampshire. There are early records of the name in the counties of Surrey and Sussex also, accounted for by the dispersal of the surname as former inhabitants travelled to live and work in other places. In addition to this "natural" dispersal many villages were forcibly "cleared" to make way for sheep pastures in the 14th Century and their populations driven out. In this way all that remains of the place is the modern surname, which means "brook or stream where water arum grew", derived from the Old English pre 7th Century "mysse", water arum or "buckbean", with "broc", brook. "Emlin Miselbroke" was married to "Henry White" on the 30th September 1650 at Overton in Hampshire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Misselbrooke, son of Robert, christened, which was dated 18th April 1564, Wootton, St. Lawrence, Hampshire, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Good Queen Bess, 1558 - 1603. 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.