Garfield

This name is Anglo-Saxon in origin, and is from a place that is now "lost" and has disappeared from the maps. An estimated seven to ten thousand villages and hamlets in Great Britain have been "lost" since the 14th Century, mostly due to the enforced "clearing" of large areas to make room for sheep pasture in the 14th Century. The placename probably grew from a field-name referring to a triangular area of land, in Olde English pre 7th Century, the "gara", gore a derivative of "gar", spear and meaning in a transferred sense, the triangular shape of a spearhead. This piece of land was usually that left at the corner of an open field after rectangular furlongs had been laid out. The surname can also be topographical, denoting residence by such a field. Jone Garfield and Thomas Chesseman were married at St. Nicholas, Deptford, in August 1598. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Josephe Garfeilde, christened, which was dated June 1581, All Hallows the Less, London, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Good Queen Bess, 1558 - 1603. 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.