This name, with variant spellings Oxborough, Oxborrow, Oxbrow, Oxburgh and Oxbury, is of English locational origin from a place in Norfolk called Oxborough. Recorded as Oxenburch in the Domesday Book of 1086 and as Oxeburg in the 1194, Pipe Rolls of that county, the name derives from the Old English pre 7th Century "Oxan", genitive plural of "oxa", an ox, plus "burg" a fort; hence "fort where oxen were kept". The surname from this source was first recorded in the latter part of the 13th Century, (see below). It is particularly well recorded in Church Registers of South Eastern England from the mid 16th Century. On February 21st 1563, John Oxeberie, an infant, was christened in Lavenham, Suffolk, and on December 11th 1569, Margaret Oxborrow and William Car were married in Swaffham, Norfolk. The marriage of Lawrence Oxbrough and Anne Payton took place in St. Mary Abbots, Kensington, London, on April 18th 1634. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William de Oxeburg, which was dated 1275 - "The Hundred Rolls of Norfolk", 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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