This unusual and interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from any of the various places in Scotland and Northern England, named with the Olde English pre 7th Century "niwe, neowe" (Middle English "newe", new), plus "bigging", building, house, a derivative of "big", to build. These places include: Newbiggin in Durham, noted as "Neubigin" in 1208; Newbiggin in Cumberland, appearing as "Neubigging" in the 1290 Charter Rolls of that county; and Newbiggin in Northumberland and Westmorland, recorded as "Neubigging" in 1208 and 1223 respectively. In the modern idiom the surname can be found as Newbigging, Newbegin, Neugbigging and Neubigin. Several places called Newbigging are located throughout Scotland, for example, in Midlothian, Fife, Dundee, Angus and Lanarkshire. In "Memoire of the Somervilles", it is noted that "the vil and lands of Newbigging in the parish of Carnwath, Lanarkshire, passed into possession of the Somervilles through marriage with the daughter and heiress of Walter de Newbigging about the middle of the 13th Century". Robert de Newbigging was noted in Westmorland County Records in 1314, and William de Newbiging was a tenant of the earl of Douglas in the parish of Linton in 1376. A Coat of Arms granted to Dr. William Newbigging, Scotland, in 1829 is a silver shield, on a red fess three escallops of the first, the Crest being an eagle rising proper. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Alan de Neubigging, a knight appointed to settle the law of the marches, which was dated 1249, in the "Acts of Parliament of Scotland", during the reign of King Alexander 11, King of Scotland, 1214 - 1249. 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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