This interesting surname of English origin with variant spelling Stote, Stute, Stott, Stoite, Stoade, etc., is derived from the Medieval English 'Stott' meaning a bullock and was originally given as a metonymic occupational name to a keeper of the animals. The surname is first recorded in the latter half of the 12th Century, (see below). One John Stotte appears in the 1296 'Subsidy Rolls of Sussex'. The following quotation from Whitaker's 'History and Antiquities of Craven', (Yorkshire) reads, 'The live stock at Bolton Abbey (1526) included XX Oxen, X11 Wedders, 1X Tuppes, XXV1 Stotts'. Recordings include one John Stoite who married Mercy Leighe on June 4th 1611 at St. Bartholomew the Less, London, and Edward, son of Mathew and Anne Stote who was christened at St. Anne Soho, Westminster, on March 9th 1706. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Gamel Stot, which was dated 1165 - 'The Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire', during the reign of King Henry 11 - The Builders of Churches, 1154 - 1189. 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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