According to www.fiske.clara.net: "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 sction
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...The jurisdiction (is) in the King's
(manor of) Foulsham...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 referes 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
light of the above I now believe that the family name is pre-Norman, and
thus possibly of Danish (ie Viking) origin."
Fom 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)."