Sproston - Name

This name is of English locational origin from a place thus called in Cheshire. Recorded as Sprostune in the Domesday Book of 1086 and as Sprouston in the 1271 Pipe Rolls of that county, the first element is the Olde English pre 7th Century personal nickname Spro(s)t from "sprot", a shoot or sprout, plus "tun", a farm or settlement. Sproughton in Suffolk and Sprowston in Norfolk are named with the same elements. The name is particularly well recorded in Cheshire Church Registers from the mid 16th Century, (see below). On February 14th 1617 Robert Sproston and Ellen Seuell were married in Holy Trinity Church, Chester and in 1618 Ralph Sproston of Middlewich appears in "The Wills Records at Chester". The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Anne Sproston, daughter of Hugh Sproston, which was dated April 1543, christened in Nantwich, Cheshire, during the reign of King Henry VIII, Bluff King Hal, 1509 - 1547. 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.