Lapish - Name

This is one of those rare names which is fairly well recorded but has never become in anyway common. The name is first recorded in England as "Lapus", which is either a developed form of the ancient hebrew "Lapidus", recorded in the book of judges as the husband of the prophetess "Deborah" or it may be job descriptive for a Mason, a derivation of Lapis - a stone. The relatively late first recording clearly suggests that the original name holder was of immigrant status. The period coincides with the early entry of the huguenots, but this is not proven from the records. The early entries include Edward Lapish, a witness at the Church of St. George in the East, Stepney, London on November 19th 1742, at the christening of his daughter Ann. The name is recorded heraldically as Lapisse of Guyenne, Gascony. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Jane Lapus, which was dated March 16th 1654, christened at St. Martin's in the Field, Westminster, during the reign of Oliver Cromwell, "The Lord Protector", 1650 - 1658. 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.