This uncommon name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a topographical surname acquired in the first instance by someone who lived by a headland, or the upper end of an area of land. The name derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century "heafod", head, with "land", estate, district; "heafod" is used in many placenames in the transferred senses of "headland, summit, upper end", or "source of a stream". Topographical surnames, such as Hadland and its variant form Headland, were among the earliest created, since both natural and man-made features in the landscape provided easily recognisable distinguishing names in the small communities of the Middle Ages. Among the recordings of the name in London Church Registers are the marriage of Edmund Hadland and Bridget Oker at St. Andrew by the Wardrobe, on August 15th 1608, and the marriage of William Hadland and Mary Swinten at St. Gregory by St. Paul, on October 29th 1614. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John de Havedland, which was dated 1273, in the "Hundred Rolls of Suffolk", 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.

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