Pingston

This intriguing and attractive surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from a place called Pinxton, situated east of Alfreton in Derbyshire. Recorded as "Penkeston" in the 1208 Curia Regis Rolls of Derbyshire; as "Penekeston", in the Feet of Fines for that county, dated 1236, and as "Penkiston" in the 1244 "Inquisitiones post mortem", the place was so called from the Olde English pre 7th Century "Pencetes", itself coming from the British (pre Roman) "pencet", end of the wood, with "tun", enclosure, settlement; hence, "settlement at the end of the wood". Locational surnames, such as this, were originally given to local landowners, and the lord of the manor, and especially to those former inhabitants who left their place of origin to settle in another area, and were best identified by the name of their birthplace. Regional and dialectal differences subsequently produced several variations on the original spelling of the name, which in the modern idiom appears as Pinkstone, Pinckstone, Pingston(e), Pickston(e), Pinxton, and Pixton. On November 17th 1650, Arthur, son of John and Anne Pinkstone, was christened at St. Olave's, Hart Street, London, and on January 5th 1780, James Pinkston and Ann Edwards were married in Witton, Cheshire. The Coat of Arms most associated with the name is a red shield with three silver piles engrailed meeting in point, each charged with as many pellets. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Hugo de Penkeston, which was dated 1207, in the "Curia Regis Rolls of Nottinghamshire", during the reign of King John, known as "Lackland", 1199 - 1216. 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.