This curious surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from the village of Stickland in the parish of Winterbourne Stickland, south west of Blandford in Dorset. The river Winterborne in that county, recorded as "Winterburne" in the Saxon Chartulary, dated 942, is so called from the Olde English pre 7th Century "winter", winter, with "burna, burne", spring, brook, stream (now "bo(u)rne" and "burn"), eferring to an intermittent stream, or more specifically one dry except in winter. The parish name appears as "Winterburn Stikellane" in Documents preserved in France, dated 1203, and the village as "Sticelenlane" in "Codex Diplomatius aevi Saxonici", dated 1019. The latter is so called from the Olde English pre 7th Century "sticelen", steep, "stick-like" ribbon of land, and "lanu", path. Locational surnames, such as this, were originally given to local landowners, and the lord of the manor, and especially as a means of identification to those who left their birthplace to settle elsewhere. On September 29th 1581, Thomas Stickland and Margery Combe were married at Crewkerne, Somerset. Among the earliest recorded namebearers to settle in the New World were William and Margaret Stickland, whose son, William, was christened at St. Michael's Parish, the Barbados, on June 9th 1678. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Stickland, which was dated July 23rd 1545, marriage to Anne Dowse, at Puddleton, Dorset, during the reign of King Henry V111, known as "Bluff King Hal", 1509 - 1547. 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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