Stormonth

This unusual surname is of Old Scottish origin, and is a locational name from Stormont, one of the ancient divisions of Perthshire between the Ericht and the Tay, fourteen miles in length and seven miles in breadth. The component elements of the placename are believed to be the Gaelic "stour, sturr", rough, and "moin", bog, moor. Alternatively, the initial element may be the Old Norse "storr", big. Locational surnames, such as this, were originally given to local landowners, and the lord of the manor, and especially as a means of identification to those who left their birthplace to settle elsewhere. In 1658, one Agnes Starmount in Overlangriggs was noted in the Register of Testaments for Dumfries. Sir David Murray of Gospertie, commissioner of James 1 at the synods of Perth and Fife (1607), and at the general assembly at Perth (1618), was created Viscount Stormont in 1621. Recordings from Scottish Church Registers include the marriage of Margaret Stormonth to James Darling in Edinburgh parish, Midlothian, on January 28th 1792, and the christening of Anne, daughter of James Stormonth and Anne Ewen at Inchture, Perthshire, on March 6th 1808. James Stormonth, a surgeon, and settler in the American Colonies, died in St. Mary, Jamaica, on October 1st 1801, and another James Stormonth (1825 - 1882), was a philologist and lexicographer of renown. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard Stormonth, who witnessed a sasine in the barony of Banff, which was dated 1507, in "Charters of Bamff House", Perthshire, during the reign of King James 1V of Scotland, 1488 - 1513. 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.