This unusual and interesting name is of Anglo-Saxon origin and is a locational surname deriving from a now "lost" place thought to have been situated in Hampshire between Fareham and Havant. An estimated seven to ten thousand villages and hamlets are known to have disappeared in Britain since the 12th Century, due to natural causes such as the Black Death of 1348 and particularly to the high incidence of enforced "clearing" of such places to make sheep pastures in the 14th and 15th Centuries, the "boom" years of England's wool trade. The placename derives from the Old English pre 7th Century personal name "Prut, Prud", from "Prut", proud in Middle English "Proute", with the Old English suffix "-ing", indicating "the people, or family, of", so the placename means "settlement of Prout's people". Richard Prowting and Ann Mathews were married in Droxford, Hampshire, in May 1664. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Prowtin (christening), which was dated 25th October 1562, Hinton Ampner, Hampshire, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, "Good Queen Bess", 1558 - 1603. 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.