This interesting surname of Anglo-Saxon origin is a metonymic occupational name for a twiner, one who twines or twists thread, deriving from the Olde English pre 7th Century "twin" meaning "thread, string". The surname dates back to the early 15th Century (see below). Church records include Elizabeth Twynne who married John Allsop on May 30th 1549 at St. Michael Bassishaw, London, Jone Twyne who married Thomas Best on December 8th 1567 at the Church of St. Lawrence Poutney, London, and Margitt Twine who married Thomas Smyth on February 14th 1612 at St. Bride's, Fleet Street, London. A Coat of Arms was granted to a Twine family in Preston, Lancaster on November 21st 1571 consisting of a black fess embattled in chief two black stars all on a silver shield. Widdo Twine, an emigrant to the New World, is recorded as owning land in the Barbados in 1680. Job descriptive surnames originally denoted the actual occupation and later became hereditary. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Edmund Twyne which was dated 1422, in the "Feet of Fines of Huntingdonshire", during the reign of King Henry V1, known as "The Founder of Eton", 1422 - 1461. 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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