Survey of English Place-Names

Historical Forms

• Bessintone 1086 DB

• Bessintona Exon

• Bixiton' 1199 CartAnt

• Estbixinton 1269 Ch

• Buxinton' 1212 Fees

• Bexinton(') 1234 HarlCh 13 Ch 1234 Fees 1279 Cl 1242–3 1260

• West Bexinton(') 1268 Ass

• Litle Bexinton('), West Bexinton(') 1269 Ilch

• Est Bexinton(') 1269 Ch 1270 Hutch1 1296 Pat

• Bexintone 14 LodersC

• Bexynton' 1269 Ilch

• istbexinton' 14 Ilch

• Brodebexinton 1344 Pat

• Westpexynton (sic) 1268 Ass

• Bexingtun 1285 FA

• Bexingtone 1291 Tax

• Bexyngton 1340 NI

• Weste Bexyngton 1396 Ilch

• Est Bexyngton 1406 1587 AddCh

• Bexington Farm 1667 Russ

• Bexington, East Bexington, Middle Bexington & West Bexington 1795 Boswell

• Boxington' 1288 Ass

• Bexyngeton 1291 Tax 1428 FA

• Betsyngton 1296 Pat

• East Bexenton 1658,1683 Ilch

• 'the church of Bexington' 1365 Pat

Etymology

Probably 'farmstead or estate where box-trees grow', from OE  byxen and tūn, as suggested by Kökeritz (SNPh 6126) and followed by Ekwall DEPN, cf. the discussion of this and other names that may contain byxe 'box-tree' and its adjectival derivative byxen by R. Coates, English Studies 80 (1999), 2–45. West Bexington (formerly in Bindon liberty 1 107–8) is so distinguished from 1268, alternatively as Brodebexington 1319 and 1344, v. west , brād . East Bexington is separately recorded from 1269, and Little Bexinton (') 1269 may refer to this or to Middle Bexington (from 1594), v. ēast , lȳtel , middel ; these affixes apparently distinguish what is now East Bexington Fm and East Bexington Dairy Ho (now in Abbotsbury par. supra , and for the alias West Seawell v. Seawell Knap in that par.).There is mention of 'the church of Bexington ' in 1365 Pat; this is said to have been dedicated to St Giles in 1451 and to have almost disappeared by 1863 (Hutch3 2771).