This interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and derives from the Olde English pre 7th Century word "Englisc", which was used, to refer to the Angles as distinct from the Saxons. The form Inglis is a Scottish form of the word referring to a Scottish border dweller of English as distinct from Celtic stock. The word has Old French cognates as "Engelais". Early occurrences of the ethnic byname are found in the early 13th Century as "Engeleisia" in the Pipe Rolls for Wiltshire (1200), and as "Ingeleis" in the Assize Court Rolls for Lincolnshire (1202). The surname had already emerged by the middle 13th Century (see below). Variant forms of the surname as it has evolved include Ingull, Ingle, Inglish and Ingliss. Recordings from London Church Registers include the marriage of Hester Ingall and Nicholas Wilkinson on October 11th 1620, at St. Benet's, Paul's Wharf. A famous namebearer, recorded in the "Dictionary of National Biography" was Charles Inglis (1731 - 1781), a rear-admiral who was present at the Relief of Gibraltar in 1781. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Walter Ingeleys, which was dated 1273, in the "Hundred Rolls of Oxfordshire", 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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