Bradfield

This name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname from any one of the places called Bradfield in Berkshire, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and West Yorkshire. These places are variously recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Bradefelt", "Bradefeld" and "Bradefelda", the name meaning "the wide field", from the Old English pre 7th Century word "brad", broad, wide and "feld", pasture, open country, specifically land cleared of forest but not yet brought into cultivation. One Rachell Bradfield was christened on March 12th 1628 at St. Dunstans, Stepney and the marriage between Robert Bradfield and Jane Snellon was recorded on the 14th February 1698 at St. Mary's at Hill, London. A Coat of Arms granted to the family is blue, a gold and blue cross compony between four gold mullets, the Crest being an arm from the elbow erect holding two branches of palm in orle. In Heraldry the cross is representative of the Christian faith and the love of God for sinful men and the mullet denoted Honour and Achievement in Service of the state in ancient times. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Walter de Bradfeld, which was dated 1273, The Suffolk Hundred Rolls, during the reign of King Edward 1st, "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.