The first known Fisk(e)s

Until recently I have been content to accept that Daniel Fisc of Laxfield was the earliest known holder of the surname (see extract from Fiske Family Papers below). However in the Phillimore edition of the Domesday Book for Norfolk I found (in section 34,20 under the lands of Peter of Valognes) the following entry for Wood Dalling, in the Hundred of Eynsford:

In (Wood) DALLING 1 free man, Fish, held 1 c.* of land before 1066.
Always 9 villagers; 16 smallholders; 2 slaves.
Always 1 plough in lordship; 3 men's ploughs; meadow, 2 acres; woodland, 6 pigs. When he [Peter of Valognes] acquired it 1 cob, now 2. Then 6 head of cattle, now 20. Then 6 pigs, now 30. Then 16 sheep, now 80. 30 goats. Also 5 Freemen, 20 acres of land. Always 1 plough.
The jurisdiction (is) in the King's (manor of) Foulsham.
Value 40s.
It has 1 league in length and ½ in width, it pays 19d in the King's tax, whoever holds there.

*1 c. is 1 caracuta, which was as much land as could be tilled with 1 plough and a team of 8 oxen in a year. This is an imprecise measure which is usually taken to mean a unit of  about 180 acres of which 60 are fallow, 60 spring and 60 autumn sown corn. It is also considered equivalent to 1 Hide.

Also in the book is the original Latin text, in which the name of the pre-Norman free man Fish is clearly spelled 'fifc' [the second 'f' having no cross bar and hence an 's']. The notes for the entry state that 'Fisc' represents either the Old English fisc [FISH] or the Old Norse Fiskr [FISKE], and refers the reader to the 'Dictionary of British Surnames' and to 'The pre-Conquest Personal Names of Domesday Book' by O. von Feilitzen [Nomina Germanica III, Uppsala 1937].

In the light of the above I now believe that the the family name is pre-Norman, and thus quite possibly of Danish (ie Viking) origin.

From Chapter 1 of Fiske Family Papers by Henry ffiske, 1901:

The family of Fiske flourished for a very long period in the County of Suffolk. So early as the eighth year of the reign of King John, A.D. 1208, we find the name of Daniel Fisc, of Laxfield, appended to a document issued by the King, confirming a grant of land in Digneveton*, made by the Duke of Loraine to the men of Laxfield. The original is in the Public Record Office in London, and is dated May 1, 1208.

*Dennington, Suffolk. [The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names]

ROTULI CHARTARUM, vol. 1, part 1, page 177

Confirmation by King John, May 1, 1208, to the men of Laxfield of land in the park of Digneveton; granted by the Duke of Loraine. The following are the names of those to whom the grant was made: Robert Garenoise, Eustace Percario, Henry de la Hose, Walter de Holoc, William son of Robert, William Daniel, Jeffrey Daniel and Daniel their brother, Daniel Cuppario, Brithmare son of Brithwalden, Stephen Proest, Stephen Archer, Eustace son of Philip, Melvine wife of Roger Gadermod, Picot son of William, Bernard son of Roger, Edmund son of Robert, Jordan son of Robert, William son of Gilbert, Robert son of Brithmar, Simon son of edric, William Odonis, Godfrey and Herbert, Robert son of Jeffrey, Osbert a clerk, Ralph a clerk, Hadebrand Haiward, Robert son of William, Simon son of Turstan, Brithmar son of Godwin, Roger Haiward, Richard Haddoc, Reignald son of Godwin, and Robert and Daniel his brothers, John Emelin, Johnson of Roger, William Wudewell, Roger Crespin, Henry son of Ade, Roger Hunne, Matilda wife of Gilbert, Ernest de Radbrooke, and Robert his brother, Gerald son of Adwin, and DANIEL FISC.