This intriguing name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and may be either a locational or a topographical surname. As a locational name, Uphill derives from the place so called in Somerset (now Avon) near Weston-Super-Mare; the placename is recorded as "Opopille" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as "Uppehill" in the 1176 Pipe Rolls of the county. The place is named with the Olde English pre 7th Century elements "uppan", above, and "pyll", pill, tidal creek, stream, thus "(place) above the pill or creek"; Uphill stands on the lower (River) Axe. The first recorded bearer of the surname from this source, below, was from Uphill. Locational surnames were used particularly as a means of identification by those who left their birthplace to settle elsewhere. As a topographical name, Uphill denoted someone who lived "up on the hill", derived from the Olde English "upp(an)", up(on), and "hyll", hill, mound. Early examples of the surname from this source include: Henry Uppenhull (1255, Wiltshire); John Uphulle (1268, Somerset); and William Uppehelle (1320, Kent). Among the recordings of the name from Church Registers are those of the marriages of Greg Uphill and Agnes Corpe, in North Cadbury, Somerset, on January 24th 1561, and of Anthony Uphill and Philadelphia Hynde, on May 10th 1612, at St. Andrew by the Wardrobe, London. The family Coat of Arms depicts a silver pale between four silver trefoils, slipped, on a black shield. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Roger de Uphull, which was dated 1199, in the "Pipe Rolls of Cornwall", during the reign of King Richard 1, known as "Richard the Lionheart", 1189 - 1199. 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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