Melling

This interesting surname of English origin is a locational name from an extensive parish near Kirby - Lonsdale, Lancashire and from a chapelry in the parish of Halsall, near Ormskirk. It is derived from the Old English tribal name Me(a)llingas meaning "people of Mealla". The name dates back to the late 12th Century (see below). Further recordings include one Robertus Melling (1379) "The Poll Tax Records of Yorkshire". Variations in the spelling include Mellinge and Mellings. Examples of early recordings include Reginald Melling of Liverpool in the register of the Wills at Chester in 1578, and John Mellings, of the parish of Mellings in the Lancashire Wills register at Richmond in Yorkshire in 1583. Other examples include Dorothie Mellinge who married Reignold Saterthwaite on December 22nd 1597 at the church of St Gregory by St. Paul's in the city of London, and John, the son of Robert and Mary Melling christened at St. Andrew's Enfield, on September 10th 1703. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Henry de Mellinges. This was dated 1194 in the Pipe Rolls of Lancashire, during the reign of King Richard 1st known to history as "Lionheart", 1189 - 1199. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as the Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.