Oxbury

This long-established surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from the parish and village of Oxborough, south west of Swaffham in Norfolk. Recorded as "Oxenburch" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as "Oxeburg" in the 1194 Pipe Rolls of that county, the place was so called from the Olde English pre 7th Century "oxan", the genitive plural of "oxa", an ox, with "burg", fortified place, fort. Very often the reference is to a Roman or other pre-English fort, though sometimes an Anglo-Saxon fort is referred to. 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. Regional and dialectal differences subsequently gave rise to several variations on the original spelling of the name, which in the modern idiom is found as: Oxborough, Oxbury, Oxburgh, Oxbrow and Oxborrow. On September 7th 1770, William Oxbury and Esther Toulmin were married at St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, London. The Coat of Arms most associated with the name is a gold shield with two azure bars, and a red lion rampant guardant. A gold lion rampant on a green mount, holding up a red spear, headed silver, and under the head two ribbons flotant, one gold, the other azure, forms the Crest. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William de Oxeburg, which was dated 1275, in 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.