Sargant - Name

This interesting name of English and French origin is a dialectal variant of an occupational name Sergeant. The derivation is from the middle English 13th Century and Old French pre 7th Century "Sergent" and the Latin word "Serviens", and meant originally servant, the general sense. However, the word developed various specialized meaning, e.g. In the New English Dictionary, it is recorded that circa 1290, the meaning was "a tenant by military service under the rank of a knight", and from the same source, circa 1300 as "an officer charged with enforcing the judgements of a tribunal, arresting offenders, or summoning persons to appear before a court". One Alice Sargant the infant daughter of James and Anne Sargant was christened on March 6th 1639 at St. Martin Pomeroy, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Edric le Sergant, which was dated 1185, Danelaw Documents, Lincolnshire, during the reign of King Henry II, "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. 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.