Stebbings

Recorded as Stebbing, Stebbings, Stubbings, Stebbens, Stebbins and possibly others, this is an English medieval surname. It is almost certainly locational from the village of Stebbing in the county of Essex. First recorded as Stabinga and Stibinga in the famous Domesday Book of William, the Conqueror in 1086, the name means either the place of the Stybba people, with Stybba being a personal name of great antiquity and recorded in the charter known as the Cartularium Saxonicum of the year 960 a.d., or it could simply mean a cleared place in the forest. The surname is widespread in the region around Essex known as East Anglia, a further confirmation of its early origins. An early example of the surname recordings is that of Thomas Stebin in the Hundred Rolls of landowners of Cambridgeshire in the year 1273, whilst Henry Stebbing (1687-1763) became personal chaplain to King George 11nd of England, in 1732. The coat of arms is associated with the Stebbing's of Wisset in Suffolk and Woodrising in Norfolk. It has the blazon of Quarterly, gold and red, on a black bend, five gold bezants. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard de Stebing. This was dated 1272, in the Hundred Rolls of Essex, during the reign of King Edward 1st, known as "The Hammer of The Scots", 1272 - 1307. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as the Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.