Recorded in several forms including Wink, Winch, Winkworth and Winckworth, this is an English surname. There are three possible sources for the surname. The is that it is locational from East and West Winch in Norfolk, and from the Olde English pre 7th century "wynn", meaning a meadow, and "wic", a dairy farm. These places are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, as "Eastuuininc", and "Wesuuenic". However, Winch and its variants Wynch, Wink and Winks, may also be a topographical name for a person living by a well from which water is drawn by means of a winch, deriving from the Olde English "wince", a winch or pulley. As winkworth and Winckworth it would seem to be a 'lost' medieval village name, and one that is well recorded in the surviving registers of the diocese of Greater London from at least the time of Charles 1st (1625 - 1649). This would seem to be from the Olde English "wynn - wort" and give a meaning of a wood bt a meadoww. Examples of early recordings taken from church registers include Mary Wincke, who married Thomas Barne at St Lawrence Jewry, on May 5th 1546, Elizabeth Winche christened at St Lawrence Poultrey, London, on September 10th 1598, whilst John Winkworth was christened at St Giles Cripplegate, on February 23rd 1637. Sir Humphrey Winch was a member of the council for Foreign Plantations in 1671, and as such received a salary of 500L, equivalent to about 200,000 in 1990 values. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Walter Winch, which was dated 1189, in the "Pipe Rolls of Cambridgeshire", during the reign of King Richard 1, known as "The Lionheart", 1189 - 1199. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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