Collecott

This interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from any of the various places; for example Caldecote in Berkshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Huntingdonshire and Warwickshire, or Caldecott in Northamptonshire and Rutland, all recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Caldecot". The placenames derive from the Olde English pre 7th Century "c(e)ald", cold, and "cot", cottage, dwelling, hut. The reference may be to a hut or a shelter for animals in an exposed position, but the common occurrence of the name suggests that in many cases it has some technical meaning, maybe "a place of shelter for wayfarers". Locational surnames were developed when former inhabitants of a place moved to another area, usually to seek work and were best identified by the name of their birthplace. Geoffrey de Caudecot is noted in the Curia Regis Rolls of Kent (1206), and Richard de Coldecote is listed in the Subsidy Rolls of Worcestershire. In the modern idiom the surname has many variant spellings, ranging from Caldicot, Calcot and Caulcutt, to Colocott, Chaldecott and Chalcot. On April 2nd 1659, Joseph, son of John and Mary Collicott, was christened at St. Mary Whitechapel, Stepney, London, and on November 13th 1749, Mary Collecott married John Parkin, at St. Luke's, Old Street, Finsbury, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Simon de Caldcot, which was dated 1195, in the "Pipe Rolls of Cambridgeshire", during the reign of King Richard 1, known as "Richard the Lionheart", 1189 - 1199. 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.