This surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from any of the various places named with the Olde English pre 7th Century "neowe", new (Middle English "newe"), and "stede", place, used variously in the sense of "market-place, place of worship, site of a building, dairy-farm" or "outlying pasture". Newstead near Brigg in Lincolnshire appears in its latinized form, "Nouus Locus", in the 1202 Assize Court Rolls of that county, and as "Neustead" in 1227. Newstead in Northumberland and in Yorkshire are recorded respectively as "Newstede" in 1327, and as "Newestede" in 1301, and Newstead Abbey in Nottinghamshire was entered as "Nouus Locus in Schirewood" in the 1230 Pipe Rolls of that county. Locational surnames, such as this, were originally given to local landowners, and the lord of the manor, and especially as a means of identification to those who left their place of origin to settle elsewhere. On April 14th 1607, Frauncis, daughter of Richardi Newstead, was christened in Long Bennington, Lincolnshire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert Newstede, which was dated February 27th 1539, christened at Mabrough, Lincolnshire, during the reign of King Henry V111, known as "Bluff King Hal", 1509 - 1547. 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.