Briscombe Family History

In N England, it may be an altered form of Broxup (via Broscop Broscombe) as suggested in Redmonds Dictionary of Yorks Surnames. The 1587 example may alternatively be a variant of the Lincs name Broxholme with unrounding of the stressed vowel to [ɪ] and metathesis of [ks] to [sk].

Lincs surnames do sometimes migrate northwards into ER Yorks and southern WR Yorks where Broxholme and its variants may have been confused with variants of Broxup mentioned above.

In SW England, it is a metathesized form of Burscombe in Sidbury (Devon), recorded in the locative phrase Berrdescumbes heafod in 1061 (1227).

This likely denotes the valley (Old English cumb) of a man named with the Old English personal name Beornrǣd.