Thring

This interesting and unusual surname is of locational origin from Tring in Hertfordshire. The placename derives from the Old pre 7th Century English "treo", meaning tree and "hangra" slope, hence "slope where trees grew". It is found as early as 1086 in the Domesday Book, where it occurs under the form "Tredunga", and later as Trawinge in the 1176, Hertfordshire Pipe Rolls. The surname had clearly emerge by the latter part of the 13th Century (see below). The birth of Edgar Thring was registered at Broad Chalke, Wiltshire in 1606. In London Registers the earliest recorded variant of the surname was the marriage of one Agnes Threnge to Edward Arnolde on February 20th 1602 at Ealing. The name is rare even in registers and one of the few recordings to occur in Hertfordshire was the marriage of Henry Thring to Susannah Sutton at Layston on the 8th of January 1827. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert de Thring, which was dated 1275, The Hundred Rolls of Kent, during the reign of King Edward 1, "The Hammer of the Scots", 1727 - 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.