This interesting surname with variant spellings Trepass, Trepasse, Treppas, Trepas, etc. is either a topographical name for someone who lived in the village or town situated by a soft mass, deriving from the Welsh "tre" meaning "village", "town", "homestead" plus the Old English pre 7th Century "paesc" "soft mass" "puddle", or it may be a nickname for a trespasser deriving from the Old French "trespas" meaning "a passage", (itself coming from "trespasser", "to pass through"). The surname dates back to the late 13th Century, (see below). Further recordings include one Thomas Trespas (1273), "The Hundred Rolls of Hundingdonshire". London church records include one Elizabeth Trepas who married Ambras Coles on July 10th 1665, at St. Bartholomew the Less, Joseph Treppas married Margaret Crosse on April 1st 1669, at St. James, Clerkenwell, and Michael, son of Thomas and Ellinor Treppas, was christened on June 26th 1687, at St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Trepas, which was dated 1273 - "The Hundred Rolls of London", during the reign of King Edward 1, "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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.