Denslow

This rare and interesting surname is a variant of Denslow, which is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is locational from a now "lost" place, thought to have been in Devonshire, due to the large number of recordings in that county. The name is derived from the Old English pre 7th Century "denu", valley and "sloh", slough, swamp, bog, thus the "bog in the valley". An estimated seven to ten thousand villages and hamlets are known to have disappeared in Britain since circa 1100, due to such natural disasters as the Black Death of 1348, in which an eighth of the population perished, or to the widespread practice of "clearing" large areas of land to make sheep pastures during the height of the wool-trade in the 14th and 15th Centuries. The modern surname can be found as Denslow, Denzilow, Danslow and Denziloe. Among the sample recordings in London are the christening of Charles, son of John and Phillippa Denziloe, on February 2nd 1790 at St. Botolph-without-Aldgate. The christening was recorded in Devonshire of George, son of John and Anne Denziloe, on September 4th 1625 at Membury. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Denslo, (marriage to Alice Fursey), which was dated October 6th 1577, in Yarcombe, Devonshire, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, known as "Good Queen Bess", 1558 - 1603. 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.