Risbrough

Recorded as Riseborough, Risborough, Risbrough and in the past Risebarer, this is an English surname. It is locational from either or both the twin villages of Monks Risborough, and the more widely known Princes Risborough, in the county of Buckinghamshire. According to the Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names, the village of Monks Risborough was held by the monastery of Christchurch, Canterbury, but was presumably lost to the church after King Henry V111th desolved the monasteries in 1535, whilst Princes Risborough was an estate personally held held by the famous Edward, the Black Prince, victor of Crecy in 1346, and many other battles over the French. The villages are first referred to in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles of the year 903 a.d as "Hrisanbyrge" or the ridge covered by brush wood, and as Riseberge in the Domesday Book of 1086. The surname appears to be first recorded in the Hundred Rolls of landowners in the year 1292 with that of Thomas de Rieseberghe, who was probably the lord of the manor, whilst four centuries later and far away in Norfolk, John Riseborough also recorded as John Rosebrow, was the sheriff of Norwich in 1704. In the city of London in 1729, John the son of Timothy Risebarer, so much for London spelling, was christened at St James Clerkenwell.