Coat of Arms & Family Crests Store
  Thistleton Coat of Arms / Thistleton Family CrestThe surname of THISTLETON was a locational name from a place so named in County Lancashire. The name was originally derived from the Old English word TISTELTUNE, literally meaning the dweller at the place where thistles abounded. Most of the place-names that yield surnames are usually of small communities, villages, hamlets, some so insignificant that they are now lost to the map. A place-name, it is reasonable to suppose, was a useful surname only when a man moved from his place of origin to elsewhere, and his new neighbours bestowed it, or he himself adopted it. The earliest of the name on record appears to be TISTELTUNE (without surname) who was listed as a tenant in the Domesday Book of 1086, and THISTELTUN (without surname) was documented in County Lancashire in the year 1212. Most of the European surnames were formed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The process had started somewhat earlier and had continued in some places into the 19th century, but the norm is that in the tenth and eleventh centuries people did not have surnames, whereas by the fifteenth century most of the population had acquired a second name. Adam de Thistleton appears in Lincolnshire in 1273, and Thomas Thistelton of Yorkshire, was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. It has long been a matter of doubt when the bearing of coats of arms first became hereditary and it was not until the Crusades that Heraldry came into general use. Men went into battle heavily armed and were difficult to recognise. It became the custom for them to adorn their helmets with distinctive crests, and to paint their shields with animals and the like. Coats of arms accompanied the development of surnames, becoming hereditary in the same way. At first the coat of arms were a practical matter which served a function on the battlefield and in tournaments. With his helmet covering his face and armour encasing the knight from head to foot, the only means of identification for his followers, was the insignia painted on his shield, and embroidered on his surcoat, the draped and flowing garment worn over his armour. |
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