Derived from the 12th Century Middle English 'huckestere', the surname is job descriptive for a medieval travelling merchant, although the name applies specifically to a woman. In later years as society became urbanised, travelling merchants male or female, came into disrepute but this was not so, originally when travelling merchants provided the only source of news for the majority of the populace. The name development included Amable La Hukkestre - 1310 Colchester, and the late Richard Huxster 1662, The Hearth Tax Returns, Essex. The name has other alternative spellings including Huster and Huxstep which are dialectual transpositions. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Lecia La Hucstere, which was dated 1277, The Abbey of Ely, Suffolk, during the reign of King Edward I 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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