This name, with variant spellings Lade, Lathe, Lait and Late, derives from the Olde Norse 'hlatha' meaning a lathe or barn, and was originally given either as a topographic name to one who lived by a barn, or as a metonymic occupational name to a worker at the barn(s). The Danish form of the name was 'lad(e)', a barn or granary, and both forms were retained in the Medieval English of the northern counties where the surname was first recorded, (see below). One, Gilbert del Lathes appears in the 'Register of the Free Men of York City', dated 1296. On August 19th 1633 William Laight and Sara Oldis were married in St. Mary Athill, London, and on and on July 9th 1673 Elizabeth Late married a Thomas Cheek in All Hallows, London Wall. The marriage of Sarah Lait and Thomas Holmis Ceal took place in St. Luke's, Old Street, Finsbury, London in 1801. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John de la Lade, which was dated 1273, in the Hundred Rolls of Lancashire, during the reign of King Edward 1, known as 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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