This unusual and interesting surname has two distinct possible sources, each with its own history and derivation. Firstly, Brendish may be of Anglo-Saxon origin, and a locational name from the parish and village of Brundish, north of Framlingham in Suffolk. Recorded as "Burnedich" in the 1177 Pipe Rolls of that county, and as "Burnedis" in the 1204 Curia Regis Rolls, the place was so called from the Olde English pre 7th Century "burna", a stream, with "edisc", enclosed pasture, park; hence, "edisc on a stream". The surname from this source first appears on record in the late 13th Century (see below). Locational names, such as this, were originally given as a means of identification to those who left their birthplace to settle elsewhere. Regional and dialectal differences subsequently produced several variations on the original spelling of the name, which, in the modern idiom is found as Brundish, Brandish, Brendish and Brindish. On November 14th 1604, Valentine Brendishe, an infant, was christened in Soham, Cambridgeshire. The surname may also be of Czechoslovakian origin, and locational from the town of Brandys, on the Labe (Elbe) some twenty kilometres north of Prague, called Brandeis in German. On February 4th 1614, Elisabeth Brendisch and Matthaeus Rothe were married in Seitendorf, Bautzen, Sachsen, Germany. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert de Brundis, which was dated 1273, in the "Hundred Rolls of Essex", 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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