Like the surname Coleridge, which derives from the Devon village of Coldridge, this is a habitational name for one who lived at a cool place on a hillside. The origination is from the pre 7th Century "Col-hrycg", and the number and scope of the variant spellings would suggest that there were a number of such places scattered through the British Isles. These recordings are generally found in some quantity in the London Area, strongly suggesting that the original name holders were forcibly driven from their homes by plague, famine and civil war but most likely by the "Enclosure Acts" of the 16th and 17th Centuries which dispossessed them from their common grazing rights. The recordings include Elizabeth Collericke (1652) who was christened at St. Botolphs without Aldergate and John Colerick (1788) St. Mary le Bone church. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas Coleracke, which was dated June 12th 1597, a witness at the church of St. Margaret Pattens, London, 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.