Baverstock

This rather unusual surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is locational from Bavertock in Wiltshire. The placename is first recorded in 968 as "Babanstoc", and in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Babestoche". The name means "Babba's farm", derived from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name "Babba", of uncertain etymology, but thought to be a "nursery" name, and "stoc", usually a dairy farm, but also meaning a "place", often an outlying hamlet or dependent settlement. Locational surnames, such as this, were usually acquired by a local landowner, or by the lord of the manor, and especially by those former inhabitants of a place who had moved to another area, usually in search of work, and were thereafter best identified by the name of their birthplace. Recordings of the surname from London Church Registers include the christening of John, son of Thomas and Elizabeth Baverstock, at St. Dunstan's, Stepney, in London on February 4th 1693. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Joane Baverstok, which was dated November 25th 1563, marriage to John Hardman, at Abbotts Inn, Hampshire, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, known as "Good Queen Bess", 1558 - 1603. 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.