This most interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is an English locational name from Barwick in Norfolk, which appeared as "Bereuuica" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and in Somerset, which was recorded as "Berewyk" in the Feet of Fines of 1219. The name may also be a variant of any of the following placenames: Berrick, Berwick and Borwick. All of these placenames have the same derivation, which is from the Olde English pre 7th Century "berewic", a corn farm, composed of "bere", barley, corn, and "wic", an outlying farm; hence, " granary lying some distance away from the main village". Locational names were originally given as a means of identification to those who left their village or place of origin to settle elsewhere. The surname is first recorded in the latter half of the 13th Century (see below), while other early examples of the surname include: Edward Barwyk, mentioned in 1463, in the Register of the Freemen of the City of York, and John Barycke in 1547, in "The East Anglican". John Barwick (1612 - 1664), opposed parliament at the outbreak of war in 1642, and with his brother, Peter (1619 - 1705), communicated to Charles 1 and Charles 11, the designs of the rebels. A Coat of Arms granted to a family of the name from Northumberland is on a gold shield , three black bears' heads erased muzzled silver, the Crest being on a green mount a gold stag, attired black. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Laurence de Berewyke, which was dated 1278, in the "Hundred Rolls of Oxfordshire", during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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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