Recorded in seberal spellings including Rsihworth, Rushworth, Rushworthe, Rushsorth and others, this is a medieval English surname. It is locational from residence by rush beds "rysse - worp" or more likely from one of the several English villages called Rishworth in Yorkshire or Rushford in Norfolk and Warwickshire. Both these latter two villages appear in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 as Risseworth. Most of the early recordings are from East Anglia, although later the surname became popular in the Yorkshire region. Examples of the early surname recordings include William de Rushworthe, the rector of Santon in Norfolk in 1368, and John de Russorthe in the Subsidy Tax rolls of the same period. The surname development includes John Rushworth M.A. (1612 - 1690) Clerk to the House of Commons and Secretary to Oliver Cromwell (1650), whilst Mr. John Rushworth is recorded as being a Plantation owner in Barbadoes in 1679 and a member of the Honourable Colonel Symon Lamberts' Regiment of Horse Militia. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Dominia de Ruseworth. This which was dated 1273, in the Hundred Rolls of landowners of the County of Norfolk, during the reign of King Edward 1st and known as The Hammer of the Scots, 1272 - 1307. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes 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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