Accoring to the famous Victorian etymologist Canon Charles Bardsley writing in the year 1880, this surname is locational and English. He belived that it originated from the village of Merryvale in in Pembrokeshire, Wales, but this is not so. There are or were several places called Merrifield or Merry Fields in England, and the most likely candidate for the origin of the surname is Merrifield, a now 'lost' medieval village near to the town of Holsworthy, in the county of Devon. The translation of the name may have something to do with merry-making, but more likely is used in a transferred sense to describe a pleasant field, or perhaps one in which the soil was of a very high quality. The earliest recording of the surname is believed to be that of John de Merefeld of Somerset, who appears in the Hundred Rolls of Landowners for that county in the year 1273, whilst Luvkok de Merifild also of Somerset, appears in the charters known as Kirby's Quest in the same year. Edward Meerefeeld married Annes Foden at St Peters church Cornhill, in the city of London in theyear 1584, whilst two centuries later we have the recoreding of William Merryfield who married Ann Harpley at St Georges chapel, Hanover Square, Westminster in 1756.

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