This is a locational name "of Welling", a village situated between the parishes of Bexley and East Wickham in Kent. The name means "place of the Woelingas" - a tribe so called from the Olde English pre 7th Century "weoh" - a (pagan) temple and "leah" - a wood or clearing. The surname is first recorded in the latter half of the 13th Century (see below). The spelling "Welling" appears three centuries later. One Richard Welling of Lancashire is recorded in "The Oxford University Register", dated 1578. On January 26th 1750 Susanna, daughter of William Wellings was christened at Meopham, Kent, and on March 1st 1796 Sarah Wellings and Thomas Clements were married in Deal. The final "s" on the name perserves the Olde English genetive ending i.e. "of Welling". The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William de Wellynge, which was dated 1273 - The Hundred Rolls of Norfolk, 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.