Tewkesbury

This English locational surname is recorded in a number of different spellings including Tewkesbury, Tukesbury, Tewkesberry, Tewkesberrie, and Tukesby. It originates from the small town of Tewkesbury in Worcestershire. The placename, and hence the later surname translates as "Teodecs castle, the name being first recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 as "Teodechesberie". Ekwalls "Book of English Place-names" suggests that "Teodec" was a nickname or pet name, possibly of the Olde English and Welsh "Caradoc", clearly he was a man of some importance. Locational surnames were by their nature given either to the lord of the manor and his later descendants as may be the case here, or to former villagers who moved elsewhere. "Elsewhere" may have been the next town, but this does not alter the fact that the easiest way to identify a "stranger" was to call him or her by the name of the place from whence they came. This method of random selection also gave rise to the many different spelling forms. Early examples of the surname include James Tewkesbury, christened at St Ann's Soho, Westminster, on October 2nd 1650, and Richard Turkesbury, a witness at Allhallows church, London Wall, on June 1st 1679. The first known recording is believed to be that of Mabel de Teukesbury, in the Hundred Rolls of the county of Gloucestershire, in the year 1273. This was during the reign of King Edward 1st 1272 - 1307.