This most interesting and long established surname has three distinct possible sources, each ith its own history and derivation. Firstly, Lynn may be of medieval English origin, and a locational name from any of the various places named with the British (pre-Roman) "lenna", an ancestor of the Welsh "llyn", lake, pool. These places include: Lynn, a hamlet south west of Lichfield in Staffordshire; Lynn in East Shropshire; and any of three Lynns in Norfolk, having the separate prefixes "King's-, South- and West-". Early recordings from this source include: Cecilia de Lynn (Devonshire, 1273) and John de Lynne, bailiff of Norwich (1396). The second origin is Scottish, and a variant of the locational name "Lyne", either from an old manor of the same name in Peebleshire, or from the ancient castle of Lin in Ayrshire. David, son of Robert de Lyne, made a grant to Neubotle Abbey, circa 1165 - 1214, and William de Lyn held lands in Perthshire in 1246. Finally, Lynn may be an Anglicized form of the Old Gaelic surname "O'Fhloinn", descendant of Floinn, a personal byname from "flann", ruddy (complexioned). A leading branch of this family resided on the borders of Connacht and Ulster where the name became "O'Loinn", and was subsequently Anglicized "(O)'Lynn". On May 2nd 1591, Elizabeth Lynn and William Sharpe were married at St. Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Aedricus de Lenna, which was dated 1177, in the "Pipe Rolls of Norfolk", during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. 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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