Fowlston

This ancient and interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from either Fulston Manor in Sittingbourne, Kent, or from the village of Fulstone, south east of Huddersfield in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Recorded as "Fugelestun" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as "Fugeliston" in the Wakefield Court Rolls, dated 1274, the latter place has as its initial element the Olde English pre 7th Century personal byname "Fugol" from "fugol", bird, with "tun", enclosure, settlement. Locational surnames, such as this, were originally given to local landowners, and the lord of the manor, and especially to those former inhabitants who left their birthplace to settle in another area. Regional and dialectal influences subsequently produced several variations on the original spelling of the name, which in the modern idiom is found as: Foulston, Fowleston(e) and Fullstone. In 1251, Robert de Foweleston, witness, was noted in the Assize Court Rolls of Yorkshire, and on May 12th 1672, John Foulstone and Elizabeth Selvester were married in Rotherham, Yorkshire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert de Fugeleston, which was dated 1197, in the "Feet of Fines of Kent", 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.