Hullock

Recorded as Hughlock, Hullock and the more usual Ullock, this is an English surname. It is almost certainly locational or at least residential from the village of Ullock, a place near Keswick, in the county of Cumberland. This place was recorded as "Great Ulfelayth" in the tax rolls known as the 'Feet of Fines' in the year 1235 and as "Ullaik" in Subsidy Rolls of 1332. There is also a place, of the same name, near Workington, also in Cumberland, and this is recorded as "Ulnelayke" in the land register of the priory of St. Bees in 1248. Both of these place names are composed of the Old English pre 7th Century word "Ulfa", meaning a wolf and "-leikr", the Old Norse word for "play", thus possibly "the place where wolves play". It is also possible that the surname may derive from the Old English word "holoc", and may have been a topographical name for a person who dwelt in a hollow. Early examples of the surname recording include Walter Hollock in the Subsidy Rolls of Somerset in 1327, whilst Jenet Vllocke appears in the Lancashire Wills Register at Richmond in Yorkshire, in 1611. An interesting namebearer was Sir John Hullock (1767-1829), a judge, who was created a baron of the Exchequer and knighted in 1823. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Walter de Holoc. This was dated 1208, in the Rotuli Chartarum for the county of Suffolk, during the reign of King John known as "Lackland", 1199 - 1216. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.