Brimmacombe

This name, with variant spellings Brimblecombe, Brimacombe, Brimicombe, Brimmacombe, and Brinicombe, is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is locational from some minor, unrecorded, or now "lost", place, believed to be situated in Devonshire, due to the prevalence of Church recordings of the surname in that county. An estimated seven to ten thousand villages and hamlets are known to have disappeared in Britain since circa 1100, due to such natural disasters as the Black Death of 1348, in which an eighth of the population perished, or to the widespread practice of "clearing" large areas of land to make sheep pastures during the height of the wool-trade in the 15th Century. The placename was recorded as "Brumelcome" in 1281, and as "Bremylcomb" in 1330. The component elements are the Olde English pre 7th Century "bremel" meaning "bramble", and "cumb", a narrow valley; hence, "a narrow valley where bramble grew", or "a narrow valley covered with bramble". Recordings from English Church Registers include: John Brimmacome, recorded at Westbury on Severn, Gloucestershire, on February 20th 1587; the christening of Franncis Bremacom at St. Andrew's Undershaft, London, on September 30th 1621; and the marriage of Elizabeth Brimacombe and Lenthell Lindsey, at St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, London, on February 8th 1824. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Alica Bremelcombe, which was dated April 20th 1540, christened at Iddesleigh, Devonshire, during the reign of King Henry V111, known as "Bluff King Hal", 1509 - 1547. 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.