This North Yorkshire name is probably of pre 9th Century Norse-Viking origins, and according to the famous Victorian Etymologist C.W. Bardsley, derives from "pic" meaning hill or pike plus "buskr", a bush. The literal meaning being "the bushy hill" or "the place of bushes" although no such place has been identified in the medieval "lost" village list, nor is there apparently an area recorded with anything like the spelling. The name is however very old as evidenced by the first recording (below), whilst in 1601 Henry Pybus was a Merchant Adventurer in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland and Anne Pibus was christened on January 4th 1629 at St. John's Church, in the same city. Earlier on July 8th 1571 Annas Pybus (male) was christened at Ingleby Greenhow, North Yorkshire and this Dales Village may well be the epicentre of the name. Interestingly a Coat of Arms was granted to Pybus of Greenhill Grove, Barnet, Hertfordshire in 1768. This is a silver shield charged with cinnamon leaves, and a Crest of an elephant carrying sugar cane. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Elena Pykebusk, which was dated 1379, in the "Poll Tax Rolls of Yorkshire", during the reign of King Richard 11, known as "Richard of Bordeaux", 1377 - 1399. 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.

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