Fishpoole

Recorded as Fishpool and Fishpoole, this is an English surname. It is locational from some place called Fishpool although no such place now seems to exist. Clearly it did once exist as shown by the large number of surname recordings in the surviving church registers of the city of London going back to at least the reign of King Charles 11nd, (1660 - 1685). These early recordings include Mary Fishpool who married John Delaforce at St Pancras Old Church, on June 7th 1684. The name may have applied to an intensive fish farming lake which were often attached to monasterys. The closure of most of these by King Henry V111th in about 1535, may be the reason why this village 'disappeared'. It is estimated that at least five thousand hamlets, villages and even small towns have disappeared from the maps of the British Isles over the past five centuries, and most gave rise to surnames. Usually 'lost' villages came about as a result of changed farming practices. This including major draining of the fen country, and hence the gradual disappearance of many lakes and small rivers, which may have applied here. However the upshot is that often the only reminder of a places former existence, as with this name, is the surviving surname itself.