Muggleton

This interesting and most unusual surname is of English locational origin from either "Mucklestone", a parish in Staffordshire, north-east of Market Drayton, or "Muckleton", a hamlet in north Salop (now Shropshire) south-east of Wem. The place-names probably derive from the same origin, "Mucel's tun", from the olde English pre 7th Century personal name "Mucel" and the old English word "tun", enclosure, settlement, hence "the settlement of Mucel". The place in Staffordshire was recorded "moilestone" in the Domesday Book of 1086 and "Mukleston" in the Feet of Fines in 1221. John Muggleton married Mary Mayles at St. Mary Somerset, London on September 14th 1600, while Harriet, daughter of John and Ann Muggleton was christened at St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, London on June 30th 1612. Lodowicke Muggleton (1609 - 1698) an interesting namebearer had inward revelations, 1651 - 1652 and declared by Reeve to have been chosen as a messenger of a new dispensation 1652, arrested twice for blasphemy and wrote an abundance of doctrinal letters. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Edward Mucleston, which was dated 1592, Register of the University of Oxford, (Shropshire), during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, "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.