This interesting surname is English. Recorded as Statham, Staten and Staton, it is locational from the village of Statham in the county of Cheshire. The place name, and hence the later surname, derives from the Old English pre 7th century word "stoeth" meaning a landing stage or wharf, and therefore means the settelement at the wharf. Locational surnames were usually given either to the local lord of the manor and his or her descendants, or to former inabiatants of the village, who had moved elsewhere. In this case the surname certainly travelled, as early recordings include those of Richard de Stathum in the registers known as the "Catalogue of Derbyshire Charters" in the year 1413, and Henry Stathum in the wills record known as the "Calendar of Inquisitiones Post Mortem" for the county of Nottinghamshire in the year 1450. An example taken from the surviving registers of the diocese of Greater London is that of Richard Staten who married Alis Witsett on August 11th 1564 at St. Luke's Chelsea, whilst several centuries later Patrick Staton believed to be of Irish origins, and a famine emigrant, sailed from Belfast aboard the ship "Liverpool" bound for New York on June 18th 1846. Brian Statham was a famous international cricketer for Lancashire and England in the 1950's.The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John de Statham. This was dated 1273, in the Hundred Rolls of the county of Cambridgeshire, during the reign of King Edward 1st, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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