This ancient surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving from either Radbourne in Derbyshire or Radbourn in Warwickshire. The place in Derbyshire is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Radeburne, Rabburne", and in the 1171 Pipe Rolls of the county as "Redburna". Radbourn in Warwickshire is "Hreodburna" in an early charter of 998, and "Redborne" in the Domesday Book. Both placenames share the same meaning and derivation, originally the name of the stream at the place, "stream where reeds grew", from the Olde English pre 7th Century "hreod", reed(s), with "burna, burne", spring, brook, stream. Locational surnames were used particularly as a means of identification by those who left their birthplace to settle elsewhere. Early examples of the surname include: William de Radburn' (1219, Yorkshire); Robert de Redeborne (1273, Huntingfordshire); and John Radborne (1584, Oxfordshire). Among the recordings of the name in Church Registers are those of the marriages of Elizebeth Radbourne and Will Newball at Stoke in Warwickshire, on July 23rd 1678, and of Francis Radbourne and Margarett Smith on May 28th 1692, at Melbourne in Derbyshire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William de Redburn', which was dated 1202, in the "Feet of Fines of Lincolnshire", during the reign of King John, known as "Lackland", 1199 - 1216.

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