This interesting surname of English origin, being a locational name is a dialectal variant of a place called Blackborough in Devonshire, deriving from the Old English pre 7th Century "blac", "bloc" meaning "black" plus "beorg" "hill" or "mound" hence "Black Hill". The place name is recorded as Blacaberga, Blacheberge in the Domesday Book of 1086. The surname dates back to the early 13th Century, (see below). Further recordings include one Simon de Blakeberwe (1275) "The Hundred Rolls of Suffolk". Variations in the idiom of the spelling include Blackbrouff, Blackborough, Blackborow, etc. One William, son of Hester and Jeffrey Blackborow, was christened on February 1618, at St. Peter Cornhill, London, and Elizabeth Blackbrough married Frances Atherton on June 22nd 1673, at St. Lawrence, Exeter, Devon. Samuel Blagbrough married Sarah Meldrun on June 21st 1815, at St. Leonards, Shoreditch, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert de Blakeberg, which was dated 1201, "The Pipe Rolls of Gloucestershire", during the reign of King John known as "Lackland", 1199 - 1216. 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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