Bridgestock

Recorded in many forms as shown below, this is an English surname. It is locational called Bridgstock in the county of Northamptonshire. First recorded as Bricstoc in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 and as Bricstoka in the pipe rolls of the county in 1168, the derivation is from the pre 7th century word "brycg" meaning bridge and "stoc" which in this context describes a houseplace; hence "house by the bridge". The surname is first recorded in the latter half of the 13th Century (see below). In the modern idiom the surname has spellings which include Brigstocke, Brickstock, Bridgestock, Bridgstock, and others. Early recordings from the church registers of Greater London include that on December 12th 1619, of Sara Brigstock, christened at St. Ann Blackfriars; the christening of John Bridgestock at St. Bride's, Fleet Street, on December 24th 1637. One, Richard Brigstock, is recorded as holding land in the parish of Christ Church in the Barbados, on December 22nd 1679. He was one of the earliest namebearers in the New World. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Walter Brigestok. This was dated 1275, in the Hundred Rolls of Lincolnshire, during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.