Brummell

This uncommon surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a variant of the more familiar Bramall, itself either a topographical name from residence in a broom-covered valley, deriving from the Olde English pre 7th Century "brom", broom, gorse, and "halh", nook, recess, remote valley, or a locational name from any of the places in north (western) England, named with the above elements. These places include Bramhall, an ecclesiastical district south east of Stockport in Cheshire, recorded as "Bramale" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and containing the ancient county seat, Bramhall Hall, also Bramall Lane in Sheffield. Topographical surnames were among the earliest created since both natural and man-made features in the landscape provided easily recognisable distinguishing names in the small communities of the Middle Ages, whereas locational names were chiefly given as a means of identification to those who left their birthplace to settle elsewhere. Early examples of same include: Robert de Bramhal' (Worcestershire, 1221), and Thomas Bram(m)all, noted in a "Descriptive Catalogue of Sheffield Manorial Records", dated 1543. In the modern idiom the name is variously spelt: Bramah, Bram(m)all, Bramhall, Brammer and Brummell. On September 9th 1652, Thomas Brummell and Dorothy Sutton were married at St. Olave's, Hart Street, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Mathew de Bromale, which was dated 1150, in "Early Medieval Records of East Cheshire", during the reign of King Stephen, known as "Count of Blois", 1135 - 1154. 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.