This is an English locational surname which originates from the village of Mattingley, in the county of Hampshire. The village is first recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as "Matinlege", which broadly translates as "the home of Matta people", and early English tribe who inhabited the area. An alternative suggestion as to the name meaning is "the farm where maedere was grown", maedere being a crop from which a red dye was extracted for use in dyeing clothes. Locational surnames were generally given to people after they left their original home and moved elsewhere. However in this case the earliest recording that we have (see below) suggests that the first nameholders may have been the lords of the manor of Mattingley, that being the alternative means by which people obtained locational surnames. Other examples include John Mattingly of Stratfield Saye, Hampshire, christened there on February 20th 1697, and Thomas Mattingley, a witness at St Michael's church, Aldershot, on March 17th 1805. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Anne Matttingley, which was dated October 17th 1596, married at Heckfield with Mattingly, Hampshire, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1st, known as "Good Queen Bess", 1558 - 1603.

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