Stickney

Recorded as Stickney and the probably now extinct Stockney, this is an English surname. It is locational aand originates from the village of Stickney, a parish nine mile from the town of Boston in Lincolnshire. The village itself was first recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Stichenai'. This is believed to translate as 'Stick island' from the pre 7th century Olde English 'sticcan eg.' It is said that even today the village lies on a very thin island between two streams that run parallel for several miles. The village of Stickford is close by, and may have provided the ford by which such traffic as there was, reached Stickney. Locational surnames are often 'from' names. That is to say names given to people after they left their original homes to move somewhere else. In this case the early registers of the city of London provide a number of examples suggesting that at some point in time probably around the year 1550, there was an emigration, possibly for religious reasons, the area was strongly puritan, or possibly because of the drainage of the fens, which greatly effected many peoples livelihoods. These examples include Edward Stockney who married Pleasant Baseneye at Christ Church Greyfriars, on February 18th 1577, and William Stickney who married Dorothy Clenche by special licence, in 1582, although we do not have the actual date.