Kingswood

Recorded as Kingswood, Kingswoode, Kinswood and the dialectal Kingswold, this is a medieval English locational surname. It originates from any of the twenty three places called Kingswood recorded in the gazetters of the British Isles. The derivation is probably from the pre 7th century "cyne-wurth" which does literally means the king or perhaps chief's, wood, although surprisingly none of the villages seem to have been recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086. The earliest is believed to be that of Kingswood near Wotton in Gloucestershire, in the year 1166 and then as Kingeswodam. As after the Conquest of England in 1066, King William 1st in all practical terms owned the whole country, it is not surprising that he should have had a number of woods or chases reserved for him for his hunting. What is more surprising is the rarity of this surname, recorded it would seem only in the English counties of Gloucester, Kent and Lincolnshire, and it is in the latter county where the majority of church register recordings are to be found. Examples of these include Richardi Kinswood at Halton Holegate in Lincolnshire, on October 2nd 1586, and Nicholas Kingswood, christened at St Martins Lincoln, on May 22nd 1614.