This interesting surname is of English locational origin from one of the estimated seven to ten thousand villages and hamlets that have now disappeared from the maps in Britain. The prime cause of these "disappearances" was the enforced "clearing" and dispersal of the former inhabitants to make way for sheep pastures at the height of the wool trade in the 14th Century. Natural causes such as the Black Death of 1348 also contributed to the lost village phenomenon. The original place is believed to have been in Leicestershire. The component elements are the old English pre 7th Century "bucc" meaning "male deer" or "the old English personal name Bucca" plus "feld" meaning "open country". The surname dates back to the late 16th Century (see below). Church recordings include Richard Buckerfield who married Margaret Norman on the 25th August 1591 also at Rothley and William Buckerfield who married Susannah Lole on July 18th 1657 at St. Katherine by the Tower, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Catherine Buckerfield (marriage to John Mathew), which was dated 1578, Rothley, Leicestershire, 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.