Linscott

This rare and interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is locational from a now "lost" place, thought to have been in Devon due to the large number of recordings in this county. The placename is derived from the Old English pre 7th Century "hlinc", a hill and "cot", cottage, hut, and means "cottage on the hill". An estimated seven to ten thousand villages and hamlets are known to have disappeared in Britain since circa 1100, due to such natural disasters as the Black Death of 1348, in which an eighth of the population perished, or to the widespread practice of "clearing" large areas of land to make sheep pastures during the height of the wool-trade in the 14th and 15th Centuries. Among the recordings in Devon are the christening of John, son of Henry Linscott, on March 12th 1585 at South Tawton, and the marriage of Mark Linscott and Sarah Lethbridge on May 1st 1696 at Colebrooke by Crediton. The christening was recorded in London of John, son of William and Mary Linscott, on September 19th 1804 at St. Leonard's, Shoreditch. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Henry Linscott (marriage to Johanna Ware), which was dated November 24th 1578, South Tawton, Devon, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, "Good Queen Bess", 1558 - 1603. 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.