This unusual surname is a late variant of Sambrook, which is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is locational from a place so called in Shropshire. The placename is derived from the Olde English pre 7th Century "sand", patch of sandy soil, and the Olde English "broc", brook or stream; hence, "the patch of sandy soil by the stream", and it was first recorded as "Semebre" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as "Sambrok" in the 1285 Feudal Aids of Shropshire. Locational surnames, such as this, were usually acquired by the lord of the manor, or a local landowner, and especially by those former inhabitants of a place who had moved to another area, and were thereafter best identified by the name of their birthplace. The surname was first recorded in the mid 13th Century (see below), and other early recordings include: Elyzabeth Sambrooke (1558, Shropshire); Anne Sandbroke (1592, ibid.); Ambros Sambrookes (1599, London); and Charles Sambrock (1663, ibid.) The modern surname can also be found as Sambrook(e), Sambroke, Sanbrook(e) and Sanbroke. Recordings from Shropshire Church Registers include: the marriage of Jeremiah Sandbrook and Elizabeth Lowe on December 26th 1713, at Hinstock, and the christening of their daughter, Elizabeth, on January 5th 1716, also at Hinstock. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas de Sambrok, which was dated 1258, in the "Feet of Fines of Staffordshire", during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. 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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