Truscott

This unusual and interesting name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational surname deriving from one of two places; either Truscott in Cornwall, or Trescott in Staffordshire. The place in Cornwall is in the parish of St. Stephen's by Launceston, and means "the further wood", derived from the Cornish (Celtic) "dres", beyond, and "cuit", wood. The place in Staffordshire has a more obscure origin, but the name is thought to derive from a British (pre-Roman) river name similar to the Welsh "tres", which means "toil, labour", and which is found as a modern river name in the "Test". The second element is the Olde English pre 7th Century "cot, cott", a cottage or shelter for animals, so the name means "the hut by the river". The placename is recorded as "Treseltum" in 985. Amye Truscote was christened in London in 1611, and Anthony Truscott married Susanna Tremayne in January 1688, at St. Stephen in Brannel, Cornwall. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Michael de Trescote, which was dated 1272, witness in the "Assize Court Rolls of Staffordshire", during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 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.