This unusual surname, recorded in church registers of the English north east midlands from the late 17th Century, is of locational origin from a now "lost" village called Heutsbie or Hutsby, originally believed to have been in that area. The prime cause of the lost village phenomenon was the enforced "clearing" and dispersal of the former inhabitants to make way for sheep pastures at the height of the wool trade in the 14th Century, along with natural causes such as the Black Death of 1348. The first element of the placename is either the Old English pre 7th Century "hiewet", a clearing, or the Medieval English male given name Huet, from Hugh meaning "heart" or "mind", plus the Old English "by", (from the Old Norse "byr"), a settlement. On April 11th 1697, William Huttaby and Sarah Scott were married in St. Mary Magdalene Lincolnshire. On October 21st 1754, Dorothy Hutsby married a Thomas Pickerin in St. Mary Hinckley, Leicestershire, and on March 20th 1786, John Hutsby, an infant, was christened in St. Mary's, Nottingham. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Heutsbie, (christening), which was dated May 12th 1664, Gateshead, Durham, during the reign of King Charles 11, "The Merry Monarch", 1660 - 1685. 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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