The Surname Blakiston it's variants
& Origins.
"The name of Blakiston in some form or other is to be found in practically all the parish registers of the Palatinate (of Durham), in most books dealing with the history and records of the city and county of Durham, and in many which relate to Northumberland and Yorkshire; but the only connected accounts of the family are those of Surtees. He seems indeed to have been specially interested in the subject, perhaps on account of an early intermarriage. ‘Few families of private gentry’, he wrote in 1823, ‘have spread more wide, or flourished fairer, than Blakiston; but all its branches, Gibside, Newton Hall, Old Malton, Seaton, and Thornton Hall, have perished like the original stock. One family alone remains within the county which can trace its blood, without hereditary possessions; and a dubious and distant kindred to the old tree of Blakiston is asserted by some families who bear the name in the South.’
This is an overstatement of the uncertainties which will be dealt with below; but he is probably correct in saying that it is impossible to ‘apply safely’ to the lines set out in pedigree form by himself or his genealogical collaborator, Sir Cuthbert Sharp, the whole ‘of the vast unfunded capital of floating dates and registers’ which they had collected. He is no doubt right, however, in finding their original home in the ancient manor or township of Blakiston, which lies within the parish and about 21/2 miles north-west of the church of Norton, the mother parish of Stockton-on-Tees."
Much is owed to Surtees but research since has expanded on some of his knowledge and questioned some of the conclusions. regional notes.
"The surname admits of innumerable spellings, mostly trisyllabic; B L T and N are the only letters which do not vary. Blakiston, Blakeston, Blaxton, and Blackiston are the most common forms in the north, and Blackstone the least common. On the whole the evidence points to the long A as the original and more usual pronunciation. But it is disputed whether ‘Blechestone’ itself is the ‘ton’ or farm of a Saxon Blaecca (black) or a Norse Bleik (nickname from bleikr, pale or white).1)
1) See A. Mawer, Place-names of Durham, p. 24. But in the West Riding the name may be derived from Blackstone Edge, a ridge between Halifax and Rochdale, and in Worcestershire from Blackstone, a hamlet near Kidderminster, which is named from the Blackstone Rocks, a cliff on the Severn. The Wiltshire family, which produced the great jurist, Sir William Blackstone, was always dissyllabic, though it appropriated the Blakiston arms. The name is found in quite early records in Kent, Sussex, and Essex; and manors of Blakiston are mentioned near Plympton in South Devon and Ollerton in Notts. In most of these localities the name is more likely to have had a Saxon than a Norse origin; and in some it must be derived as a place-name simply from black and stone. 1)
The above I have taken almost verbatim from H.E.D. Blakiston. I have found the various spellings whether tri- or di-syllabic to be used interchangeably until the 1800's. From one family in East Yorkshire for example have sprung Blackstone, Blackiston, Blakeston, Blakestone and Blakeson families.
My researches show a number of family groupings. I yet have to determine whether they have separate origins.
Two large families with the Surname are those of Yorkshire and Durham. The Durham family, as described above, are very well documented with a number of Baronetcies etc. This family is traceable to the 1200's. The Yorkshire group seem to be of about 4 families. The earliest and largest traceable to the early 1500's. Yet there are Yorkshire records in the 1300/1400's. Many of those in London, Huntingdonshire, Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire have origins in these two regions.
There is a Lancashire family traceable to the 1500's.
A few Blaxton's can be found in Lincolnshire in the 1500/1600 & 1700's.
In Cornwall/Devon in the same time period were a family of Blackstone's, sometimes known as Blackingstone. My conjecture is that this family have no links with the Northern Families. A family of Blackstone's lived in Kent from the 1800's they had roots in the West Country and hence probably Devon.
My belief is that the Jurist Sir William Blackstone was from a separate family. Namely, the 'Braxton's'.
It is the Gene studies that I hope will throw light on some of the above.
Post Script: Recent DNA
results are informing our understanding of the names origins. The two largest
family groups of Durham and Yorkshire now appear to be connected. This reduces
my original estimates of 5 family groups down to 4 plus the Russian/Polish
families mentioned above.
Both the Durham & Yorkshire family surname,
therefore, is ‘locative’, deriving from the name off the Manor of Blakeston
at Norton. MacGlashan believes this, in turn, is probably a combination of the
Old English tun (farm) with a Scandinavian personal name. Therefore:
‘the farm of Bleik’.