Linch

Recorded as Linck, Lince and Linch this is an English surname. It is topographical for a person lived by a prominent bank or slope. The derivation is from the pre 7th century word "hlinc" translating variously as a bank separating strips of arable land on a slope, rising ground or a ridge. Dialectual variants of "hlinc" included linch and lench. The surname is first recorded in the early half of the 13th Century, (see below). One, Gilbert de la Lynche appears in the 1275 "Subsidy Rolls of Worcestershire" and a Robert Bynithelinche in the 1278 "Assize Court Rolls of Somerset". In 1279 one, Robert Lincke was recorded in the "Hundred Rolls of Cambridgeshire" and on October 31st 1647 Elizabeth Link and John Wears were married in St. Matthew's, Friday Street, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Geoffrey Linch, witness, which was dated 1228 in the "Fine Court Rolls of Suffolk", during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. 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.