Longworth

This name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a lcoational surname deriving from any one of the place called "Longworth" in Berkshire, Herefordshire, and Lancashire. The places in Berkshire and Lancashire are recorded as "Langwrth" in 1291 and as "Langeworthe" in circa 1210 repectively, and both share the same meaning and derivation, which is "the long enclosure, settlement", derived from the Old English pre 7th Century "lang, long", long, with "worth", enclosure, settlement often used in the sense of a subsidiary settlement dependent on a main village. The place in Herefordshire was originally named in 1242 as "Langeford", the long ford, from the Old English "lang", long with "ford", ford. The placename changed to Longworth some time during the 14th Century. One John Longworth of Northamtonshire appears in the Register of the University of Oxford for the year 1621. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Ingram Lonworthe, which was dated 1468, in the "Parish Records of Longworth", Lancashire, during the reign of King Edward V1, known as "The Self Proclaimed King", 1461 - 1483. 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.