This interesting name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and is one of the variant forms of the occupational surname usually found as "Millward". The name derives from the Old English pre 7th Century word "Mylenweard", which is composed of the elements "myle(n)", mill and "weard", guardian, keeper. Two of the modern forms of the name, Millward and Milward are found particularly in the West Midland and had the specific sense of one "in charge of" a mill, while elsewhere and especially in the south and west of England the forms Millard, Mellard, Melliard and Millwood were used chiefly as the normal medieval term for a miller. In some cases the surname "Melliard" may be a variant form of "Millier" an Anglo-Saxon locational surname for a now "lost" place in Somerset, also found as Milliar, Milyear, Melliar and Mellior, meaning "the mill weir". One thomas Melliard was christened at Catcott, Somerset on September 2nd 1639 and George Melliard who married Janet Roy at All Souls, Marylebone, London on April 23rd 1861. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert le Milleward, which was dated 1273, The Huntingdonshire Hundred Rolls, 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.

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