Stokey

This interesting surname of English origin with variant spellings Stocky, Stockey, Stokey, Stuckey, etc., is a locational name from Stockey in Meeth, Devonshire, deriving from the old English pre 7th Century "Stocc" meaning "stock, trunk or stump of a tree" plus "(ge)haeg", "enclosure" hence "residence near an enclosure made with trunks or stumps". The surname dates back to the late 13th Century, (see below). Church recordings include one Margery Stockey who married Ru Lymney on August 19th 1576 at St. Stephan's, London, Charles Stockey who married Elizabeth Landre on September 8th 1689 at St. Marylebone, St. Mary Street, Marylebone Rd., London, and John Stockey who was christened on February 18th 1704 at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster. During the Middle Ages when it was increasingly common for people to migrate from their birth place to seek work further afield the custom developed that they would adopt the placename as a means of identification. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William de Stockey, which was dated 1276, "the Hundred Rolls of Lincolnshire", during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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.