This very unusual name is of Old Norse origin and is a locational surname from the place in Cheshire called "Antrobus". The placename is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Entrebus", and in the Pipe Rolls of Cheshire of 1282 as "Anterbus". The derivation of the name is from the Old Norse personal name "Eindrithi" or "Andrithi", with the Old Norse "buski", shrub, bush or thicket, the whole name thus signifying "Andrithi's thicket". Many placenames of Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse origin are formed in a similar fashion, with a personal name and a topographic feature such as a wood, hill or copse, indicating ownership of the place. One Thomas Antrobus appears on the Register of the University of Oxford in 1600. Elizabeth, daughter of John and Anne Antrobus, was christened at St. Brides, Fleet Street, London on the 7th January 1652. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Joseph Antrobus, (marriage to Ann Parr), which was dated 27th August 1572, Frodsham, Cheshire, 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.

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