Bennington

This long-established surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from any of the various places in Lincolnshire thus called: for example, Bennington Grange, north west of Grantham; Long Bennington on the River Witham, recorded as "Beningtun" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as "Bennington" in 1163; and Benington, a parish and village, north east of Boston, containing the hamlets of Benington Sea End and Benington West End. These places have as their component elements the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name "Beonna", with "ing", son, descendants, people of, and "tun", enclosure, settlement; hence, "settlement of Beanna's people". The village of Bennington in North Hertfordshire may also have given rise to the surname. This place, recorded as "Benintone" in the Domesday Book, translates as "settlement of the dwellers on the River Beane". 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 1273, one Astin de Bennington was recorded in the Hundred Rolls of Lincolnshire, and on June 16th 1571, Robert Bennington married Ellen Sayles at St. Peter's, Lincoln. A Coat of Arms granted to the family is a silver shield with three gold leopards' faces on a red chevron between three red escallops. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Alan de Benington, which was dated 1272, in the "Book of Fees 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.