Froggatt

This unusual and interesting surname is locational from a place in Derbyshire, near Bakewell, which probably gets its name from the Old English pre 7th Century 'frogga', a frog and 'cot' a shelter, cottage. The 'frogga' was possibly used as a nickname to denote a person who in some way had the characteristics of a frog, or it could have denoted a place frequented by frogs. The surname is particularly well recorded in Derbyshire church registers from the late 16th Century under the variant spellings Froggett, Froget, Frogatt, Frogate, Froggot etc.. On July 26th 1592 Elinam Froggot and Rogerus Wylde were married in Baslow. Anna Frogatt, an infant was christened in Beeley on November 5th 1601 and on January 5th 1629 Godfrey Froggatt married an Elizabeth Bullock in Norton, Derbyshire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Hellen Frogate, (marriage to Robert Lowell), which was dated 1548, St. Lawrence Jewery, London, during the reign of King Edward V1, "the Boy King", 1547 - 1553. 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.