The surname BARRICK was derived from the famous border town of the same name in Scotland. Rather curiously the surname is not uncommon at the present day in Fife. John de Berwic was the rector of Renfrew in the year 1295, and appears to be the first of the name on record. Geoffrey of Berewick was the burgess of Roxburgh in 1296, and Magister Johannes de Beruyc witnessed a gift of lands to the Hospital of Polmade in 1320. Patrick de Berwic received a payment from the Exchequer in 1328. The first people in Scotland to aquire fixed surnames were the nobles and great landowners, who called themselves, or were called by others, after the lands they possessed. Surnames originating in this way are known as territorial. Formerly lords of baronies and regalities and farmers were inclined to magnify their importance and to sign letters and documents with the names of their baronies and farms instead of their Christian names and surnames. The abuse of this style of speech and writing was carried so far that an Act was passed in the Scots parliament in 1672 forbidding the practice and declaring that it was allowed only to noblemen and bishops to subscribe by their titles. Since the dawn of civilisation the need to communicate has been a prime drive of all higher mankind. The more organised the social structure became, the more urgent the need to name places, objects and situations essential to the survival and existence of the social unit. From this common stem arose the requirements to identify families, tribes and individual members evolving into a pattern in evidence today. In the formation of this history, common usage of customs, trades, locations, patronymic and generic terms were often adopted as surnames. The demands of bureaucracy formally introduced by feudal lords in the 11th century, to define the boundaries and families within their fiefdoms, crystallized the need for personal identification and accountability, and surnames became in general use from this time onwards.Later instances of the name mention Thomas de Berwic, who was the burgess of Edinburgh in 1411, and Thomas of Berwyk was the 'dene of the gilde' of Edinburgh in 1423. Thomas Bervic was a member of Parliament for Edinburgh in the year 1445, and James Berrick (workman) was recorded in Edinburgh in 1676. |
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