The surname of BIRCH was a locational name 'the dweller by the birch trees', from residence nearby. There is also a place of the name in County Essex, from where the name derived. Local names usually denoted where a man held land, and indicated where he actually lived. The name was derived from the Old English word 'birce'. Early records of the name mention Bricia (without surname) listed as a tenant in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name was recorded as Bricha (without surname) in the year 1177 in County Essex. Edward de la Byrch, was documented in the County of Devon, in the year 1237. Hugh de la Byrche, was recorded in 1300 in the County of Lancashire. Willelmus del Birch of Yorkshire was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. Richard Byrche and Margaret Gibson were married in London in the year 1571. George Birch was listed in the Wills at Chester in 1620. The earliest hereditary surnames in England are found shortly after the Norman Conquest of 1066 and are of Norman French origin rather than native English. On the arrival of the Normans they identified themselves by references to the estates from which they came from in northern France. These names moved rapidly on with their bearers into Scotland and Ireland. Others of the Norman Invaders took names from the estates in England which they had newly acquired. During the Middle Ages, when people were unable to read or write, signs were needed for all visual identification. For several centuries city streets in Britain were filled with signs of all kinds, public houses, tradesmen and even private householders found them necessary. This was an age when there were no numbered houses, and an address was a descriptive phrase that made use of a convenient landmark. At this time, coats of arms came into being, for the practical reason that men went into battle heavily armed and were difficult to recognise. It became the custom for them to adorn their helmets with distinctive crests, and to paint their shields with animals and the like. Coats of arms accompanied the development of surnames, becoming hereditary in the same way. The associated arms are recorded in Sir Bernard Burkes General Armory. Ulster King of Arms in 1884. Registered in Lancashire, and London 1664. |
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