Sherbourne

This name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving from any one of the places called Sherborne, in Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire and Warwickshire, or Sherburn, in Durham and in the East and West Riding of Yorkshire. The places are variously recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Scireburne" and "Schireburn", clearly demonstrating a shared meaning and derivation, which is, "bright stream", derived from the Olde English pre 7th century "scir", bright or pure, with "burna" or "burne", a spring, brook or stream. Locational surnames were usually acquired by a local landowner, or by the lord of the manor, and especially by those former inhabitants of a place who moved to another area, and were thereafter best identified by the name of their birthplace. The surname development has included John de Schireburne (1327, Somerset), and Richard de Schyrburn (1379, Yorkshire). In the modern idiom the name can be found as Sherburn, Sherbourne, and Sherborn(e). Anne Sherburn was christened on November 2nd 1698, at St. Dunstan's, Stepney, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Adam de Schirburn, which was dated 1303, in the "Register of the Freeman of the City of York", 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.