Eddleston

This interesting name is of Scottish origin, and is a locational surname deriving from the place called Eddleston, a village near the town of Peebles in the Borders region. The placename is derived from the name of the first owner of the land; one Edulf, son of Uctred, was granted a charter of the lands of Gillemoristun from the Norman William de Moreville, sometime before 1189, when the charter was recorded in the "Episcopal Register of Glasgow". Thereafter the lands were known first as "Edulfstun", from the personal name Edulf, a development of the Old English pre 7th century given name, "Eadwulf", composed of "ead", prosperity, and "wulf", wolf, with "tun", settlement, enclosure; gradually the placename became Eddleston. Among the recordings of the name in Scotland is that of the marriage of James Eddleston and Elizabeth Thomson at Alloa, in Clackmannan, on November 17th 1774. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas Eddleston (marriage to Mary Hudson), which was dated November 7th 1631, Ilkley, Yorkshire, during the reign of King Charles 1, "The Martyr", 1625 - 1649. 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.