This interesting and unusual surname is a variant of Streater or Streeter, which is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a topographical name for a dweller on a paved road, especially an ancient Roman road. The derivation of the name is from the Olde English pre 7th Century "straet", street or Roman road. In the Middle Ages the word also came to denote the main street in a village, and so the surname may also have been given to someone who lived on the main street. Toponymics formed by the addition of "er" to some topographical term, e.g., Bridge and Brook, are particularly common in Sussex and the neighbouring counties of Kent, Surrey, Essex and Hampshire, but are less common elsewhere. Topographical surnames 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. On April 9th 1668, Thomas, son of Richard and Anne Streather, was christened at Angmering, Sussex, and Eden Streather married John Clifford at St. Laurence, York, Yorkshire, on July 27th 1718. The Coat of Arms most associated with the family is a silver shield, on a red chevron, between three hurts, each charged with a silver fleur-de-lis, three silver birds with wings expanded, the Crest being a silver eagle with wings expanded, beaked and legged red. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Streter, which was dated 1332, in the "Subsidy Rolls of Sussex", during the reign of King Edward 111, known as "The Father of the Navy", 1327 - 1377. 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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