Shrubb

This unusual surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century "Scrybb" meaning "shrub" or "shrubs", and was originally given as a topographic name to a dweller by the shrub(s). The surname from this source is first recorded in the latter half of the 13th Century (see below). One John in the Scrobbes appears in the Subsidy Rolls of Essex, dated 1327. On June 29th 1539, Anne Shrubbe and John Ferris were married in St. Mary Abbots, Kensington, London. The surname is particularly well recorded in Surrey Church Registers from the mid 16th Century onwards: on June 7th 1562, Elno Shrubb married John Chistin in Farnham. A Coat of Arms was granted to the Shrubb family of Guildford, Surrey. It is blue with the royal lion passant in chief and an escallop or pilgrim shell in base with three red roses on a chevron. The Motto "Sub cruce semper viridis", translates as "Always vigorous under the cross". The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert Shrub, which was dated 1288, witness in the "Fine Court Rolls of Suffolk", 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.