Surname Origins, Their Source and Significations (1875)

Beton the Brewestere bade him good morrow,

and a little further on,

And bade Bette cut a bough, and beat Betoun therewith.

Thus it is we frequently light upon such entries as 'John Betyn,' 'Betin de Friscobald,' 'Robert Beton-son,' ' John Bettenson,' or 'Thomas Betanson.' These latter of course soon dropped into 'Beatson' and

Betson,' which, with 'Beton' and 'Beaton,' are still common to our directories. 'Emma,' too, as a Nor-man name has left its mark. By a pure accident, however, as Miss Yonge points out, it had got a placeprevious to the Conquest among the Saxons, through the fact of the daughter of Richard I. of Normandy marrying first Ethelred, surnamed the Unready, and then Canute the Great. Thus, though it has not unfrequently been claimed as of Saxon origin, it is not so in reality. The general spelling is 'Emme,'and the pet 'Emmot' or ' Emmet' is found in such names as 'Emmota Plummer' or 'Emmetta Catton.' This at once guides us into the source of our 'Emmots,' 'Emmetts,'1 'Emmes,' 'Emsons,' 'Empsons,' and Emmotsons.' 2

1 This name seems to have been very popular in Yorkshire. The instances given in the index are taken from papers relating to that county. Thus, again, we find it occurring in the marriage dispensations and licences of the period. 'Dispensation from Selow for Richard de Akerode and Emmotte de Greenwood to marry, they being related in the fourth degree. Issued from Rome by Jordan Bishop of Alba, Apr. 27th, 3rd Eugenius IV.' (1433.) — (Test. Ebor. vol. iii. p. 317); 'Licence to the Vicar of Bradford to marry Roger Prestwick and Emmote Crossley, Banns thrice in one day.' (1466.) — Do. p. 338.

2 We must not forget that at first a certain strangeness must have been felt in terming a woman by such a contradictory sobriquet as 'Alice Johnson' or 'Parnel Simson.' The feminine desinence was occasionally attempted. 'Alicia Thomdoghter' is found in the 'Test.

PATRONYMIC SURNAMES.

Almost as equal a favourite as 'Emma' was 'Cecilia.'This was a name introduced at the Con-quest in the person of Cecile, a daughter of William I., and it soon found itself a favourite among high and low as ' Cicely,' or still shorter as 'Cis' or 'Sis,' al-though the latter seems to have been the more generalform. In Piers Plowman, however, is preserved the more correct initial. I have already quoted him when he speaks so familiarly of

Cesse the souteresse.

In all the ballads of the seventeenth century, on the other hand, it is always 'Sis Siss ' or 'Sys.'

Long have I lived a bachelor's life,
And had no mind to marry;

But now I would fain have a wife,
Either Doll, Kate, Sis, or Mary.

Our 'Sissons,' 'Sysons,' and 'Sisselsons' 1 are of course but the offspring of this pretty appellative, while one more instance of the popular diminutive may be met with in such a name as 'John Sissotson' or 'Cissota West ' found in the 'Testamenta Eboracensia,' or 'Bella Cesselot' in the Hundred Rolls.2Our 'Dowses,' ' Dossons,' and 'Dowsons' represent the once popular 'Douce,' 'Duce,' or 'Dulce,' more

Ebor.'(Sur. Soc.), 'Isabella Peersdoghter' and 'Isolda Peersdoghter' in Feod. Prior. Dunelm. (Sur. Soc.), and 'Avice Mattewife' in the Issue Roll.'

1 'Item, I gyffe to Sicille Metcalfe, my sister's doughter, 20s.'-'Richmondshire Wills,' p. 128.

2 A curious proof of the popularity of this pet form is met with in the Manor of Ashton-under-Lyne' (Ch. Soc.). In a community of some 20 or 25 families were the following: — 'Syssot, wife of Patrick,' 'Syssot, wife of Diccon Wilson,' 'Syssot, wife of Thomas the Cook,' and 'Syssot, wife of Jak of Barsley.' Robert Syssottysone, Rector of Lecceworthe, 1478 (xx. 2, p. 187).