This picturesque surname recorded in the spelling of Wollaston, Wollerston, Woolaston, Woollaston, Woolerton, Woolaton, Woollerton, and other spellings, is of early medieval English origin. It is locational surname from one of the villages such as Willerton in Devonshire, Woolstone in Gloucestershire, or Woolverstone in Suffolk. Another possibility is from a now "lost" medieval hamlet believed to have been in Lincolnshire. The derivation of the name is from an Old English pre 7th century personal name, "Wulfsige", with "tun", meaning an enclosure or settlement, or perhaps from a different personal name such as "Wulfhere", with the second element "tun" as before. All the places are recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086, respectively as Willartun, Ossendone, and Ulverestuna. Among the early recordings taken from authentic surviving church recordings of the post period are those of Fulke Woollaston, who married Susana Townsend on October 11th 1669 at Blockley, Gloucestershire, and in London that of John Woolerton who married Elizabeth Hancock at Oxford Chapel, Vere Street, on January 18th 1749. The first recorded spelling of the family name is probably that of Gilbert Wolstan. This was dated 1199, in the charters known as the Pipe Rolls for the county of Lincolnshire during the reign of King John of England, 1199 - 1216. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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