Biscomb - Name

Recorded as Bispham and Biscomb, this is an English locational surname. It orginates from the village of Bispham, now part of the famous holiday resort of Blackpool in the county of Lancashire. According to the famous Victorian etymologist Canon Charles Bardsley writing in the year 1880, the place name and hence the later surname means "The bishops farm" and in its earliest days it was spelt Biscopham. Curiously Bispham pre-dates Blackpool itself by many centuries, Blackpool not becoming a recognised place of any significance until about 1860. Locational surnames are usually "from" names. That is to say names given to people as easy identification after they left their original homes to move somewhere else. However in this case and certainly with the first recording it could be the name of the lord of the manor of Bispham and his descendants. Spelling being at best erratic, often lead to the creation of "sounds like" spellings. In this case the early recordings include Averia de Bispham of Lancashire in the year 1288, and three centuries later Laurence Byspham in the famous Preston Guild Rolls of 1542.