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David's father was in fact a "trooper":

UK, Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner Admissions and Discharges, 1715-1925
Name    Jesse Ayling
Pension Admission or Examination Age    52
Birth Year    abt 1702
Birth Place    Petersfield
Pension Admission or Examination Date    27 Feb 1754
Regiment    Royl. Regt. of Horse Gds.

Jesse was actually baptized in Buriton, Hampshire in 1702. His father was Jesse, deceased in 1710. Jesse Sr. was a mason. He left a Will (I have a copy) where he bequeaths to wife Rachel and sons Thomas and Jesse, both under 25 years. He married Rachel in Kirdford, Sussex in 1696. Thomas was baptized in 1697 in Buriton.

Jesse (B. 1702) married twice. First to Margaret Standford at St. Martins in Chichester, Sussex on May 28, 1723. His name was recorded as "Aylwin" in error. The interchangeability of Ayling and Aylwin happens a lot in the pre mid 1700 period but usually settles out to Ayling. Jesse then married Sarah Sanders in Northampshire in 1748. Son David was born in Hertfordshire in 1749. Jess was obviously moving around as part of his occupation in the military.

Jesse (D. 1710) was probably born somewhere around 1670. I haven't found his birth record yet. I am presently working through the Hampshire records checking all variation of the "Ayling"
 name. There was a a Jesse Ayling born to Thomas at nearby East Meon in 1616.  This may be Jess (D. 1710) grandfather.

With some guesswork I have this line going back to the 1500's. See "John Ayling (B. abt 1540) of Petersfield Hampshire & descendants Family Tree" on ancestry.com. It's a very large tree in that many of these folks ended up moving to Worthing, Sussex in the 19th century where the intermarried with other Ayling family groups, often via maternal lines so they probably would not have been aware of their surname ancestors.

I suspect these lines are linked up with the Aylings further south in Portsea, etc (e.g. Sir William Bock Ayling) but I have yet to make the definitive link.

These family lines probably link up to mine which runs through John Aylyng of Bramshott, Hampshire (D. 1511) who was likely the Reeve of Droxford Manor in the late 1400's. However, the link obviously pre-dates parish record keeping.

Chris Ayling
Canada

"Aylings of Houghton Family Tree" on ancestry.com here: http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/105130887/family.

William (1825-1905) married Sarah Cunningham. Yes, some of their descendants still live and own land in Houghton.

Thomas Ayling & Jane Souter are on my tree "Wyndham Ayling (1875-1959) of Lodsworth Family Tree"  here: http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/103558972/settings/info.

Extensive research into the AYLING surname here: http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.ayling/mb.ashx, including transcriptions of many parishes for AYLING. If anyone has specific questions about any Aylings in Hampshire or West Sussex in particular, I would be happy to answer.

Chris Ayling

I haven't worked on the parishes of Hertfordshire except as they relate to one specific group of Aylings, specifically David Ayling 1749-1828 from Alton, Hampshire. I suspect the line goes back through Hampshire, but I do note there are Aylings living in Herfordshire as well. David and his father Jesse were wood turners. Perhaps their trade took them there. I've posted elsewhere in the forums on David's line.

There is a John & Elizabeth Ayling in Sandon, Hertfordshire having a son Thomas in 1750, and daughters Elizabeth in 1753 and Sarah in 1757.

Further support for a separate family line of AYLINGs in Hertfordshire:

Name:    Mathew Ayling
Father:    Matthew Ayling
Baptism:    24 Aug 1633 - Barley, Hertfordshire, England

Name:    Susana Ayling
Gender:    Female
Birth Date:    14 Jun 1668
Baptism Date:    5 Jul 1668
Aldenham,Hertford,England
Father:    Rich. Ayling
Mother:    Mary

Name:    Mary Ayling
Gender:    Female
Baptism Date:    1 Dec 1735
Great Amwell,Hertford,England
Father:    John Ayling
Mother:    Sarah

There is also a reference in the 1871 census to a Richard Ayling born about 1800 in Cradeley, Hertfordshire.

So not a lot of Aylings pre-18th century period, and no sustained family groups across generations (at least as far as the ancestry.com search engines can find), which may imply that they moved up there from Hampshire where there are Aylings all across the Hampshire/Sussex border going back the the start of parish record keeping. One would have to obtain parish record transcriptions, if available, and undertake a laborious (and expensive!) job of sorting through --as I have done for al of Hampshire and many parts of Sussex. See http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.ayling/mb.ashx

That is good advice on the surname spelling. If you are on ancestry.com that default search is to "exact, sounds like and similar". You do need to move the search filter back to "broad" to capture the variations.

That said, there are some rules of thumb that I have discovered after looking at many, many Ayling families across the south of England. First, the name was spelled as "Æglyng" in Old English, and it was pronounced as "eye-ling". However, in my experience most present day Ayling descendants pronounce the first part of the name to rhyme with "hay". See http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.ayling/164/mb.ashx for a discussion of the origins of the name.

The earliest reference to the Ayling name are from the Sussex Subsidy of 1296 where you find a Regin' Aylyng living in the Rape of Bramber, Hundred of Westgrensted, village of Wykham. This is just north of Brighton. Also there was a a Ricro Aelyng in Heyshott, Rape of Chichester in 1296. Willmo Aylyg in Lodsworth and John Alyng in Chidham and listed in 1327 and 1332

At the start of parish record keeping in the 1540's the name has mostly settled out to "Aylyng" or "Aylynge". It was sometimes recorded at the time or transcribed in error in the early 1600's as "Aylwyn" which is a distinct surname but found in many of the same parishes in West Sussex in particular. However, in the 16th and 17th centuries any researcher of the Aylyng name needs to check both. Here is an example that shows four name variations within the same document (all of whom are "Ayling" a confirmed via other sources):

Title: Quit Claim
Reference: SAS-K/134
Description: By JOHN ALIN als AYLWIN of Stoughton, Sussex, yeoman, to GEORGE WAKEFORD of Selborne, co. Southton, gent., of all right or title under the will of the late Giles Ayling, father of said John Alin, of and in the house, garden, and backside called Bartons in Harting, which was sold by said John Alin to his brother Isemonger Alin als Aylwin for £25 and by him the said Isemonger sold with other parcels of land to said George Wakeford, by deed of feoffment dated 6 June, 1670 (No. SAS-K/121)

Signature, John Aylling and seal

Witnesses:- J. Biggs, John Worlidge
Date: 17 Jun 1671
Held by: West Sussex Record Office, not available at The National Archives
Language: English
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/b84ae934...

The above at least presents the possibility that the way "Ayling" was pronounced might have influenced how it was written. After all, just about all common folk in this era were illiterate. In the recording of surnames for tax records or other government documents the surname would have been communicated orally to the scribe who then wrote down what he heard. The person giving his name would not be looking over the shoulder of the scribe to ensure that his name was spelled correctly.

You do find "Ailing" cropping up from time to time within Ayling family groups, and it is often fairly easy to see that the name is a recording error for Ayling. The more common variations of Ayling are Aylen and Aylin. This was likely because the person giving their name was dropping the hard consonant "g" from the end of the name, perhaps conforming to the dialect of the area where "g" was often dropped from the end of words. In Sussex both have settled out to Ayling within the same family groups by the end of the 18th century. In Hampshire, I believe there was only one Ayling family line that maintained "Aylen" right down to the present and overlaps the same parishes where Ayling is used. However, "Ayling" is a far more dominant name in terms of frequency of use. I worked through all the name variations for Hampshire here: http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.ayling/263/mb.ashx. In Essex there was a family of brick makers starting around the end of the 1700's with a surname "Aylen" but descendants kept that name, as well as Aylin and Ayling. It should be noted that Aylen in this southeast area is a distinct surname which seems to be unrelated to Ayling. In Kent you find a mixture of both but Ayling is again more frequent. So you habe to be very careful about making attribution of Aylen to Ayling.

You do also sometimes find variations like "Aling" or "Alin" or even "Alen" all over the south of England (and sometimes further north).

The key, I think, is the "ayl" at the beginning. Those who recorded the name kept that "y" in there which probably tells us that the name was pronounced as "eye". Otherwise, I think, the name might have morphed in Allen over the centuries.

Chris Ayling
Canada