Beverley

This is an English locational surname of Anglo-Saxon origin, from the place called "Beverley" in East Yorkshire (now Humberside). The placename is recorded as "Beverlacum" in 1067 and as "Bevreli" in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name means "beaver streams", derived from the Olde English pre 7th Century "beofor", beaver and a second element from "lecc", a stream, in Middle English "leche" or "lache". Locational names such as "Beverley" became useful as distinguishing surnames when the former inhabitants of the place went to live or work in another town and could be identified by their place of origin. One James Beverley, from Henley in Oxfordshire is listed as "bargeman" on the Register of the University of Oxford in 1564. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Albert de Beverli, which was dated 1142, Early Yorkshire Charters, during the reign of King Stephen, 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.