Pedlingham

Recorded as Pedleham, Pedlingham, Pedlinton, Pedlington, and possibly others, this is an English locational surname. It is believed to originate from a now "lost" medieval village believed to have been in the region known as East Anglia, and including the counties of Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridge. Locational surnames are usually "from" names. That is to say names that we given as easy identification to strangers who had left their former homes, to move somewhere else. Spelling being at best erratic and local dialects very thick, lead to the creation of "sounds like" spellings. We understand that early recordings appear in the Greater London registers in the 18th century, and with some consistency at St. Martins in the Field, Westminster. The origin of the name is pre 7th century, the translation being "The farm (ham) of the Pedr people", Pedr being an early form of Peter. Amongst the recordings is John Pedleham, at St. Barthlomews the less in 1725, whilst Joseph Pedlingham was recorded at the church of St. Bartholemew the Great, also city of London, in 1721. 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.