Recorded as Bathersby, Battersby, Batterbie, Battabee, Batterbee, and possibly others, this an English surname. It is locational from a township called Battersby in the parish of Ingleby Greenhaw, in the North Riding of Yorkshire. This place is recorded variously as Baderesbi in the famous Domesday Book of 1086, as Baderesby in the Curia Regis rolls of Yorkshire, dated 1203, and as Batheresby in the Fines Court rolls of the county in 1242. The first element of the name is the Viking personal name Bothvarr meaning 'messenger-guard' and byr, a settlement. The surname was first recorded in the latter part of the 14th Century, (see below). Locational names were originally given to either to the lord of the manor or as a means of identification to those who left their place of birth to seek work elsewhere. Recordings include Elizabeth Batterbee who was christened at Gnosall, Staffordshire, on April 2nd 1589 and Elizabeth Battabee who was christened at St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster, on June 7th 1760. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Rogerus de Bathersby. This was dated 1379 in the Poll Tax returns of Yorkshire, during the reign of King Richard 11nd, 1377 - 1399. 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.