Bromfield

Recorded in the spellings of Bromfield and Broomfield, this is an English surname. It is locational or topographical. It may derive from any one of the places called Broomfield in Essex, Kent, and Somerset, or Bromfield, in Cumberland and Shropshire. The place in Cumberland is recorded as "Burmfeld" in the Register of the Priory of Wetherhal of 1145, and the others all appear in the Domesday Book of 1086 as, respectively, "Brumfelda", "Brumfeld", "Brunfelle", and "Brumfeld". All of these places share the same meaning and derivation, which is "open country where broom grew", from the Olde English pre 7th Century "brom", broom, gorse, with "feld", open country, land free from wood, plain. As a topographical surname, Bro(o)mfield denoted residence by or on such a stretch of land. Among the recordings of the name in London Church Registers is the marriage of John Broomfield and Elizabeth Norncot, at St. Dunstan's, Stepney, on November 23rd 1629. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Hamo de Bromfeld. This recording was dated 1275, in the "Hundred Rolls" of the county of Kent, during the reign of King Edward 1st of England, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. Over the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop", often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.