This interesting name is of English locational origin from either "Burford" in Oxfordshire, recorded "Beorgfeord" in 752, in the Anglo Saxon Chronicles and "Bureford" in the Domesday Book 1086, or a place of the same name in Shropshire, which was called "Bureford" in the Domesday Book. The former place is made up of the elements "beorg", the Old English pre seventh Century word for hill, and "ford", a ford, but may also be identical to the latter place which consists of the Old English "burg", fortified place, town (a common element in place names) plus the second element "ford". John de Burreford is recorded in the Subsidy Rolls of Sussex in 1327, while William de Berford was a Freeman of York in 1328. The first Earl of Burford was Charles Beauclerk (also Duke of St. Albans) (1670-1726), was a son of Charles 11, by Nell Gwynn and served in the Imperial army against the Turks in 1688. Robert Burford (1791-1861), was an artist who exhibited at Leicester square and the Accdemy from 1812, and won praise from Ruskin. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Clement de Bureford, which was dated 1186, Pipe Rolls of Oxfordshire, during the reign of King Henry 11, "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. 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.

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