Stonhouse

This is a medieval English surname, and one which can be described in some cases as a status name. First recorded in ithe Curia Regis rolls of the year 1263 with that of John del Stonhuse of the city of London, it describes either a person who lived in a stone house when almost the entire population other than the nobility lived in houses not much better than shacks, or in the case of John de Stonhus of Gloucester in the Hundred Rolls of 1273, it describes a former inhabitant of the village of Stonehouse in the same county. Locationl surnames are often 'from' names. That is to say names that were given to people after they left their former homestead to live somewhere else, and thereafter were best identified by the name of that place. Spelling over the centuries being at best erratic and local accents very thick, often lead to the development of 'sounds like' spellings. Other early recordings include Walter Stonehouse of Middlesex, registered as a student at Oxford University in 1581, and Cristofer Stonhouse, who was baptised at St Dionis Backchurch in the city of London, in 1618.