Even as late as the 1881 census, which was taken on 3rd April 1881, the Kingshott family remained fairly close to their roots. The principal concentration was in West Sussex, with expansion into nearby counties, as well as specific, individual family migration to London and Buckinghamshire.

The distribution in 1881 is shown on this map.

This would tend to demonstrate that the surname is specific to that locality and the fact that it has not expanded greatly into the surrounding area would suggest that the name is quite young (at least in terms of human population).

If we look at a similar map for the surname Kinshott, a local variation on the name, this shows a preponderance for that name in Hampshire. 

Once again, there is a marked lack of movement in people having the Kinshott surname and it is remarkably contiguous with the Kingshott variation.

This all indicates that the family are very young, in genealogical terms, and that they are local to eastern Hampshire and western Sussex. This agrees entirely with my research, but does not answer the question as to why they suddenly seemed to appear in the village of Fernhurst.

By the time of the 1881 census, of course, Kingshott's had already established themselves in Australia, Canada and the United States with one or two going to even more exotic places. Others went to Belgium.

The 1891 census shows very little in the way of movement from the traditional Kingshott stronghold on the borders of Hampshire, Sussex and Surrey. Granted, they are moving out into the countryside a bit, and some go up to the "big smoke", but intrepid explorers they are not!

There are a number of books out there purporting to explain the origin of individual surnames. Needless to say, Kingshott (or any of the variations of that name) never appear in them. The nearest we have is that the name is English in origin. Great, that helps a lot!

The UK Office of National Statistics has a website where you can see how common your surname is, as of September 2002. Plugging in the Kingshott surname reveals that there were 749 Kingshott's in England, Wales and the Isle of Man at that time. This means that the surname is rare, and is the joint 8334th most common name in the country. So, really, it is not very common at all.

On the same site, if you use the derivative name Kinshott, there are only 38 of them, holding joint 60264th place!