variants

The SULSTON surname

CELSTON CELSTONE SALSTAN SALSTON SALSTONE SALSTUN SELSTEN SELSTON SELSTONE SELLSTONE SILSTON SILSTONE SOLLESDONE SOLLESTONE SULSTAN SULSTON SULSTONE SULSTUN

These are all variants of the family name that have been found in the historical records.

In the parish registers, one individual may have their surname spelled in three different ways at their christening, marriage and burial. Some of these variants are familiar to us as modern misspellings of the name, so imagine how much more difficult it was when the only person in the village who could write was the priest. He might have been London bred and struggled to make sense of an Oxfordshire or Bucks rural accent. The recipient of the name would not necessarily know if it were recorded correctly.

What is clear is that the surname of William of Blackthorn (who died in 1719) was SELSTONE but all of his descendants that I have traced spell their name as SULSTON . This process happened slowly between 1730 and 1800. In the 19th and 20th centuries, it became the only spelling for this branch of the family, apart from occasional slips. In the 1999 UK electoral register there are sixty one SULSTON names listed (68 in the 1881 census). There are also five SELSTON names (16 in 1881) but they are descended not from William of Blackthorn but from Charles SELSTONE who lived in West Thurrock in Essex from about 1770. He was born in Long Wittenham in Berkshire and is part of the SELSTONE family from South Hinksey from whom I think our William of Blackthorn is descended. The earliest date for the SELSTONE name that I have found so far is 1668.

So what is the origin of the name? Sometimes surnames are the name of the town or region from which a person has moved. There is a village called Selston in West Nottinghamshire near the border with Derbyshire. Its Old Saxon name is Salistune in the Domesday Book. Another possibility is Winterborne Zelston in Dorset. This was called Wynterborn Selston in 1489 and Winterborne Seleston in 1350, and is thought to have been named after the de Seles family. Did our earlier ancestors move from Notts or Dorset or maybe they were stone workers with a stutter? All suggestions will be gratefully received. I have found all these variations on our surname, but I still do not know its origins!

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