This intriguing name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving from the place called 'Millichope' in Shropshire. The place is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Melicope', and as 'Millinghope' in the 1199 Pipe Rolls of Shropshire. The placename means '(place at) the foot of a hill with a windmill on it', derived from the Old English pre 7th Century elements 'mylen', mill, windmill, 'hlinc', slope, hill(side), with 'hop', enclosed valley. Locational surnames were mostly acquired 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 modern surname has a variety of forms; Millichamp, Millichap, Millichop(e), Millichip and Millership. The marriage of Francis Millichap and Elyzabethe Wattekis was recorded at Cardington, in Shropshire, on May 11th 1598. William Millichap is recorded in the Register of the University of Oxford for 1620. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Roger de Millinghope, which was dated 1199, The Shropshire Pipe Rolls, during the reign of King Richard 1, 'The Lionheart', 1189-1199. 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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