Bricksey

Recorded in several spellings including Bricksey, Bricksley, Brixcey, Brixey, and possibly others, this is an English surname. It is locational and believed to be from a now 'lost' medieval village in the county of Lincolnshire. Lost villages which were the source of surnames, are a feature of the British Isles, and it is estimated that at least three thousand examples are from this source. The East Coast of England and the region of East Anglia are areas where 'lost' villages abounded. This was because of two particular happenings. The first was coastal erosion where for instance it is knoiwn that at least twenty villages have disappeared from the Humber Estuary alone in the past seven hundred years, and ore inland, the draining of the fens over the many centuries between the Roman times of 2000 years ago upto recently. This draining caused great numbers of villages on islands to lose their usefulness, and to disappear. This surname may well represent one of them as the name probably means 'Brica's island, from the pre 7th century Olde English 'Bryca - eg,' with Bryca being an early personal name. The surname is well recorded in the surviving early church registers of the city of London, with examples including Francis Brixy who married Susanna Lord at St Mary Woolnoth on September 23rd 1693, and Sarah Bricksey, who was christened at St Botolphs without Aldgate, on October 1st 1727.