Mustoo

This interesting name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and has one of the most ancient sources of all English surnames. Mustoo and the variant forms Musto, Mustow and Mustoe, are topographical surnames for someone who lived near 'the moot-stow', a piece of open ground used as a meeting-place. The derivation is from the Middle English word 'motestow', itself derived from the Old English '(ge)mot' meeting, assembly, moot, with 'stow', place, site. This was a common name for the meeting-place of a hundred, an ancient division of a county or shire, which had its own court. One John Mustoe was married to Mary Adames on September 19th 1588 at St. Andrew's, Enfield, Middlesex. Anna Mustoo married Samuell Edwards on September 10th 1684 at St. James, Dukes Place, London and Ann, daughter of William and Ann Mustoo was christened on May 17th 1787 at St. Leonard's, Shoreditch, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Ralph atte Mustowe, which was dated 1327, The Sussex Subsidy Rolls, during the reign of King Edward 111, '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.