Thompstone

This interesting and unusual name is a dialectual variant of the locational name 'Thompson', from a place so called in Norfolk. The first spelling is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Tomestun', the Feet of Fines of Norfolk in 1191 as 'Tomestun' and more recently in the Book of Fees of 1242 as 'Tumestone'. The derivation of this name is from the Old Danish personal name which dates from 1086, 'Tumi' and 'tun', an Olde English pre 7th Century word for an enclosure or homestead, thus 'Tumi's tun'. In medieval times when it became increasingly popular for people to migrate from their birth place to seek work, they often adopted the village name as a means of identification. One John Thompstone is recorded as living at Gawsworth Mill, Cheshire in 1742. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William de Tomestona, which was dated 1175, Pipe Rolls Norfolk, during the reign of King Henry, The Builder of Churches, 1154 - 1189. 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.