Hallsworth

Recorded as Allsworth, Hallsworth, Holdsworth, Houldsworth, and Holesworth this is an English locational surname. It originates either from the villages of Holdworth or Holdsworth, in the former West Riding of Yorkshire. Recorded respectively as Haldewrde in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as Haldewrth in the Hundred Rolls of Yorkshire in 1276, both places are so called from the old English pre 7th Century personal byname Halda, from "heald" meaning bent in the sense of stooped, plus "worth", a settlement or homestead, and related to the old German word "wurth", meaning soil. This second element is frequently found in locational names of Anglo-Saxon origin. Early recordings of the surname include John de Halworth and Richard de Haldeworthe in the Poll Tax Returns of Yorkshire in 1379, whilst on October 12th 1539 Jenet Halworth and Thomas Larence were married in Croston, Lancashire and on February 3rd 1576 the marriage of Jaine Allworth and John Burgas took place at Ormskirk, in Lancashire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John de Haldeworth. This was dated 1273, in the Hundred Rolls of Yorkshire, 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 known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.