Longmead

This uncommon surname is a variant of the more familiar Langmaid, itself of Anglo-Saxon origin, and a topographical name from residence by a long meadow, deriving from the Olde English pre 7th Century "lang", long (a widespread first element in placenames referring to the length of a piece of land), and "maed", meadow. Geoffrey de Longo Prato and John de Longo Prato, noted in the 1273 Hundred Rolls of Cambridge were probably specifically from the hamlet of Longmeadow, north east of Cambridge, Latinized as "Longo Prato". One Richard Langemede of Somerset was recorded in the reign of Edward 111 (1327 - 1377). The high incidence of early surname recordings from Devonshire Church Registers suggest that there may have been a minor place in Devon thus called. On June 19th 1540, Willus, son of Henrici Langmaide, was christened at Ugborough, and on October 25th 1573, Allice Lanngmeade married John Trotte at Kenn. In the modern idiom the name is variously spelt: Langmead, Langmaid, Laingmaid, Longmate and Longmead. A Coat of Arms granted to the family is a red shield with a silver lion rampant, on a chief wavy of the last a leopard's face between two cinquefoils of the first, the Crest being a boar's head and neck erased red, gorged with a chaplet of oak proper. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Hugh Langemede, which was dated 1327, in the "Early Medieval Records of Somerset", during the reign of King Edward 111, known as "The Father of the Navy", 1327 - 1377. 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.