Burbage

This interesting name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and is a dialectal variant of the locational surname, deriving from any of the places called "Burbage", in the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Wiltshire. The places in Derbyshire are recorded as "Burbeche" and "Burbache" in the 12th Century, while those in Leicestershire and Wiltshire are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Burbege" and "Burbetce" respectively. All the places share the same meaning and derivation, which is "the brook or valley of the burg, the fortified place", derived from the Old English pre 7th Century "burg", fort, often referring to a Roman or other pre-English fort, with "baece", "bece", stream, valley of a stream. The modern surname can be found as "Burbidge", "Burbage" and "Burbudge". The christening of Margareta Burbridge, the daughter of Thomae and Annae Burbridge was recorded on the August 13th 1676, at Croxall, Derbyshire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Ralph de Burebeche, which was dated 1172, in the Derbyshire Pipe Rolls, during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. 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.