Oxbrow

This name, with variant spellings Oxborough, Oxborrow, Oxbrow, Oxburgh and Oxbury, is of English locational origin from a place in Norfolk called Oxborough. Recorded as Oxenburch in the Domesday Book of 1086 and as Oxeburg in the 1194, Pipe Rolls of that county, the name derives from the Old English pre 7th Century "Oxan", genitive plural of "oxa", an ox, plus "burg" a fort; hence "fort where oxen were kept". The surname from this source was first recorded in the latter part of the 13th Century, (see below). It is particularly well recorded in Church Registers of South Eastern England from the mid 16th Century. On February 21st 1563, John Oxeberie, an infant, was christened in Lavenham, Suffolk, and on December 11th 1569, Margaret Oxborrow and William Car were married in Swaffham, Norfolk. Betherise Oxborough married a William Nicholes in Fincham, Norfolk, on August 27th 1591, and on January 7th 1765, Mary Oxberry and Isac Field were married in St. Andrew by the Wardrobe, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William de Oxeburg, which was dated 1275, in the "The Hundred Rolls of Norfolk", during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "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.