This name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and is a locational surname deriving from the place in Wiltshire called "Amesbury". The placename is first recorded circa 880 in the "Saxon Charters" as "Ambresbyrig", and means "Ambr's fortress", derived from the Old English pre 7th Century personal name "Ambr", after the Old Germanic name "Ambricus", thought to mean "immortal", from the Greek "Ambrosios", with Old English "burg" or "burh" meaning a fort or fortified place and often referring to a Roman or other pre-English fort. The surname is particularly well recorded in Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Somerset and also appears in London at the beginning of the 17th Century. One Grizell Amesbury married Nicholas Couletarte on the 28th January 1641 at St. Brides, Fleet Street in London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Christian Amsburie, married John Osburne, which was dated 7th August 1578, Bitton, Gloucestershire, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, 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.