This unusual and interesting name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving from the place called Glossop, in Derbyshire. The placename is recorded as "Glosop" in the Domesday Book of 1086, as "Glotsop" in the 1219 Feet of Fines of the county, and as "Glossope" in the 1245 Derbyshire Charter Rolls. The name is derived from the genitive case of the Olde English pre 7th Century byname "Glott", found also as the first element of the placename Glatting, in Sussex, and from an early form of the modern English verb "to gloat", with the Olde English "hop", valley, dry land in a fen. Locational surnames were acquired by the lord of the manor, and local landowners, and especially by those former inhabitants of a place who had moved to another area, usually in search of work, and who were thereafter best identified by the name of their birthplace. The surname development, using examples from Nottinghamshire, includes: Glossep (1602), Glawsop (1606), Glossope (1610), and Glassopp (1640). The marriage of Nycholas Glassoppe and Margerie Johnsonne was recorded at St. Nicholas', Nottingham, on May 14th 1564, and William, son of Thomas Glossop, was christened at Kirk Ireton, Derbyshire, on August 30th 1666. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Agnes Glossop, which was dated June 7th 1561, marriage to Richard Crookes, at Eckington, Derbyshire, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, known as "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.

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