Plaskitt

This name is believed to be locational and to derive from a place called "Plaskets", a township within the parish of Falstone in the former county of Northumberland. If this is so, the name is old English pre 7th Century and derives from the elements "Plaesc", meaning a shallow pond or marshy pool, plus "cott", a house or in its earliest meaning, a barn or stable where domestic farm animals were kept. Unfortunately we have not been able to positively confirm that "Plaesc-Cott" existed, but the prevalence of the name in London from the Mid 17th Century does suggest that the nameholders derived from some village which was wholly cleared either by plague, war or sheep farming. The name recordings include Jacob Plaskett, christened at St. Botolphs, London in 1667, Mary Anne Plaskitt of Clerkenwell in 1801 and John Plaskett of Newcastle in 1768. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Edward Plascot, which was dated September 13th 1663, a witness at the church of Holy Trinity, the Less, London, during the reign of King Charles 11, known as "The Merry Monarch", 1660 - 1685. 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.