Stockton

There are a number of places in England called Stockton, and this surname could have originated from any or almost all of them. In fact although Stockton in County Durham is or certainly was, one of the most famous places anywhere because of the Stockton and Darlington railway, the first in the world, this town was not the originator of the surname. Wherever Stocktons are to be found, the name means either a place built of "stocs," these being logs, or more probably perhaps, simply "place-place," as stoc, the later Stoke means a place, and tun, a place! Stockton on the Teme, Worcestershire, is first recorded in the year 957 a.d. as Stoctune, and this is probably the earliest of the place name recordings. This ties in with the first known surname recording being that of Geoffrey de Stockton of Worcester in the Hundred Rolls of landowners in 1273. John de Stokton, who may have come from Stockton in Durham, but is more likely to have been an inhabitant of Stockton on the Forest, just to the east of the city of York, appears in the register of the Freemen of York, in the same year. Johannes de Stokton appears in the register of the Poll Tax for Yorkshire in 1379, whilst Jonas Stockton of Warwick, was a student at Oxford University in 1605.