This interesting surname is of English locational origin from either Wearne in Somerset or Warne in Marytavy, Devonshire. Wearne is recorded as "Warne" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and was originally the name of the stream of the place. The name means "alder stream" and is derived from the British (the extinct Celtic language of the ancient Britans) "verno" or the Welsh "gwern" meaning alders. Warne is recorded as "Wagefen" in the 1194 Pipe Rolls of Devonshire and is composed of the Old English pre 7th Century elements "wagen" meaning quaking plus "fen" a fen or marsh; hence "quaking fen". The surname is first found in the latter half of the 13th Century, (see below). One, John Warne, appears in the Subsidy Rolls of Wiltshire (1524). In the modern idiom the surname has many variant spellings including Wearn, Warn, Warnes, Wearne, etc.. On February 21st 1609, Elizabeth Warne and Edward Hoare were married at St. James Clerkenwell, London. John, son of Stephen Warne, was christened on September 29th 1612, at St. Martin in the fields, Westminster. The marriage of Katheryne Warne and John Toplyn took place at St. Katherine by the Tower, London, on April 27th 1615. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John de Werne, which was dated 1273, Hundred Rolls of Somerset, during the reign of King Edward 1, "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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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