Englefield

This interesting and unusual surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is locational from either Englefield Green in Surrey or Englefield in Berkshire. The place in Surrey is derived from the Old English pre 7th Century personal name "Ingweald", composed of the elements "Ing", a divine name, and "weald", rule, and the Old English "feld", pasture, open country. The place in Berkshire is named as the open land of the Angles, derived from the Germanic "Angle", and the Old English "feld", as before; the Angles were a Germanic tribe who invaded eastern and northern Britain in the 5th and 6th Centuries, and gave their name to England, from the Old English "Englaland". The place in Surrey was first recorded as "Hingefelda" in the Saxon Chartularies of 967, and as "Ingefeld" in the Feet of Fines of 1291. The modern surname can be found as Englefield, Engelfield, Inglefield and Ingelfield. One John Englefield married Isabel Priour at Englefield, Berkshire, in 1399, and the marriage was recorded in Surrey of William Englefield and Mary Fromonds in 1640 at Cheham. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Englefield (birth), which was dated 1206, Englefield, Berkshire, during the reign of King John, known as "Lackland", 1199 - 1216. 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.