Recorded in a number of spelling forms including: Cockshot, Cockshott, Cockshoot, and Cockshutt, this is an English surname. It is locational and originates from any of several places such as Cockshoot Farm in the county of Worcestershire, Cockshot in Kent, or Cockshut in Lancashire. The derivation for the place name, and hence the later surname, is the Olde English pre 7th Century word "coccscyte," which translates literally as "a place where nets were stretched to catch woodcock", a common bird at the time. As such the surname was originally given either to a person who lived near or operated such a trap, or alternatively someone who had left the village, and moved elsewhere, the easiest way to identfy a stranger being to call him or sometimes her, by the name of the place from whence they came. In this case early examples of the surname recording include those of: John Cokschote, in the court rolls of the borough of Colchester, Essex, in 1312, and Alice atte Cocshete, in the Subsidy Rolls of Sussex in the year 1327. Other examples are those of Cocke Shoute, in the Catalogue of Ancient Deeds for Berkshire in 1562, whilst a century later in 1662, Edmund Cockshott was recorded in the roll of the Guilds of Preston, in Lancashire". The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Syman de Cokshute. This was dated 1296, in the Subsidy Rolls of Sussex, during the reign of King Edward 1st of England, 1272 - 1307. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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