Philbrook

This interesting name is a medieval variant of the locational surname Felbrigg or Felbrick, which is of Scandinavian origin, and derives from the place called Felbrigg near Cromer in Norfolk. The placename is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Felebruge", and in the Norfolk Curia Rolls of 1207 as "Felebrigge"; the name means "(place at) the plank bridge", derived from the Old Scandinavian "fiol", plank, and "bryggia", bridge. The development of the surname from this source includes Robert de Fellbrigg, abbot of North Creak in Norfolk in 1412, Harrye Felbricke (1577, London), Elizabeth Fillbrick (1596, Suffolk) and John Philbrick (1616, ibid.). Nicholas Filbrook and Barbara Fuller were married in Elveden, Suffolk, in 1668, and the marriage of one Joseph Philbrook and Sarah Murrels was recorded at Copford in Essex on February 19th 1765. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Matilda de Felbregge, which was dated 1273, in the "Norfolk Hundred Rolls", during the reign of King Edward 1st, 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.