Timberlake

This interesting name, with variant spellings Tymberlake and Timberlack(e), is of locational origin from the lost village of Timberlake in the parish of Bayton, Worcestershire. It is estimated that between seven and ten thousand villages and hamlets have now disappeared from the maps in Britain. Enforced "clearing" and dispersal of the former inhabitants to make way for sheep pastures in the 14th Century was a prime cause of these "disappearances", along with natural causes such as the Black Death of 1348. The component elements of this placename are the old English pre 7th Century "timber" meaning wood or timber, plus "lacu", a stream, hence, "stream used for the transposition of logs". ON September 9th 1571 Janne Timerlacke, an infant was christened in Knighton upon Teme, Worcestershire. John Tymberlake was christened in Rock, Worcestershire on May 1st 1609, and William Timberlake who married Adry West in Sunbury on Thames, London on October 17th 1615. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John de Tymberlake, witness, which was dated 1281 - "The Assize Court Rolls of Staffordshire", during the reign of King Edward I, "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.