You will already be aware that the ancestral form of the Kingshott surname was Kingett. Well, this page discusses a chap called George Kingshott who decided to change his surname back to Kingett.

 

The George Kingshott in question was my Great Great Grandfather's brother. His parents were Henry & Amelia Kingshott and he was born in 1848, being baptised at Bramshott church on 8th October that year.

 

George can be found in the 1851, 1861 and 1871 census' living in Bramshott, working as an agricultural labourer. At this point he was still going by the surname of Kingshott.

 

He married Emma Shotter around June 1871, a couple of months after the census was taken, and his name is recorded in the civil marriage index as Kingate (a derivative of Kingett). What caused this change of name?

 

Some descendants of George state that he changed his name because he was in some sort of trouble with the law. I cannot see that this would be the case as he remained in the area. I would like to think that the police officers of the day would not have been fooled into thinking that someone who has lived in the area for 30 years and changed their surname would suddenly become unrecognisable!

 

Whatever the reason, George becomes a Kingett from that moment on. He had four children, Henry, Emma, Richard and Maria, who were all baptised as Kingett and retained that name. I am sure that George knew that the family was once called Kingett, as there were innumerable other surnames that he could have chosen had he wanted to change his name. Instead he chose the ancestral name of Kingett.