This name was originally thought to be of East Anglian origin, but is now believed, to be Dutch-Flemish and to be associated with the engineers imported to drain the fens in the period from circa 1350 onwards. The name is believed to be locational and to come from the villages of Stalborg or Stalbras in the Province of Gueldre, the Netherlands. The name development in Cambridgeshire, where the surname is mostly recorded, includes Felix Stallibrasse (1586), Thomas Stallabrast (1600), Mary Stallybrass (1662) and William Stallerbrass (1687). In London the name first appears in 1619, with the recording of Lancelot Stallabrasse. The marriage of one John Stallabrass and Anne Lynton was recorded at Histon in Cambridgeshire on April 20th 1704. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Felix Stallibrasse, which was dated 1586, Fen Drayton, Cambridge, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, "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.