Upex

Without doubt this is one of the rarest and most unusual names on the British Register. It is apparently locational from some now "lost" place called "up-aesc", which means "the place above the ash trees". The ash tree played a large part in the formation of Olde English placenames, and several hundred examples are recorded. There are estimated to be in excess of five thousand now "lost" medieval villages, many of whom disappeared because of the wholesale extension of pastures for sheep farming in the 17th and 18th Centuries. In this case, early name recordings are rare suggesting that even when in existence "up-aesc" was a tiny community. Recordings include Richard Uppax of Barnack, Northamptonshire who married Mary Briggs on October 28th 1729. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Francis Uppex, which was dated February 16th 1636, marriage to Agnes Jackson, at Easton on the Hill, Northamptonshire, during the reign of King Charles 1st, known as "The Martyr", 1625 - 1644. 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.