Whitcombe

This surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name deriving from one of the places called "Whitcombe" in Dorset, Wiltshire and the Isle of Wight. The first two of these places are recorded as "Widecome" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and that of the Isle of Wight as "Witecombe", showing the slightly different meaning and derivation. The Dorset and Wiltshire placenames mean "the wide valley", derived from the Olde English pre 7th Century "wid, with" meaning wide, with "cumb", a coomb, valley or deep hollow. The place on the Isle of Wight means "the white valley", deriving from the Olde English "hwit", white, and "cumb", as above. The surname dates back to the early 13th Century (see below). Recordings from Kent Church Registers include: the marriage of Roger Whitcombe and Margarett Pannell on February 11th 1629, at St. Alphage's, Greenwich, and the christening of William Whitcombe on March 25th 1630, also at St. Alphage. The family Coat of Arms is a paly of six gold and black, three eagles displayed counterchanged, the Crest being out of a silver ducal coronet, a demi eagle per pale black and silver wings counterchanged. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William de Whitecumbe, which was dated 1201, in the "Pipe Rolls of Somerset", during the reign of King John, known as "Lackland", 1199 - 1216. 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.