This most interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin and is an English locational name from one of two of places, Tedstone Delamere and Tedstone Wafer in north-east Herefordshire. The placename was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Tedesthorne" and is composed of an Olde English pre 7th Century personal name containing either the Germanic element "theudo", people or the Olde English "titt", teat, with reference to a small hill, plus "thorn", a thornbush. Tedstone Delamare was held by Thomas and Jordan de la Mare in 1200 (Curia Rolls) while Robert le Wafre of Tedstone Wafer was mentioned in the Feet of Fines. Locational surnames were originally given as a means of identification to those who left their village or place of origin to settle elsewhere. The Herefordshire Church Registers record the christening of Edward, son of William and Elizabeth Tedstone on February 1st 1746, at Birley, while in London, John Tedstone married Mary Hill at the Church of St. Mary, Marylebone Road, on August 11th 1772. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Elizabeth Tedstone, which was dated September 9th 1717, marriage to Richard Rowley at Ludlow, Shropshire, during the reign of Queen Anne, known as "The Last Stuart Monarch", 1702 - 1714. 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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