Bascombe - Name

Recorded in sveral spellings including Bascomb, Bascombe, Boscombe and other forms as shown below, this is an English surname. It is locational from Boscombe and Boscoumbe Down, a village so named in the county of Wiltshire. This place is first recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 as Boscumbe, and in the Wiltshire Close Rolls of 1256 as Borrescumb. The name means 'The valley overgrown with bristles or burrs', derived from the pre 7th century word 'bors', meaning bristles or burrs, and found also in the placename Bowsley in Devon, with 'cumb', a deep hollow or valley. Cumb derives from the celtic 'cwm', and English placenames containing comb(e) and cumb(e) are particularly popular in the south western counties. The development of the surname in Dorset has recordins which include Baskome and Baskam in the year 1600, Bascom 1602, Bascomb and Bascombe 1628. One John Bascomb married Agnes Randall on the 27th June 1626 at Puddletown in Dorset. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Mary Baskam which was dated April 1545, at St. Margaret' s Westminster, during the reign of King Henry VIII, known as 'Bluff King Hal', 1509 - 1547. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.