Beamson

Recorded in several forms including Beamson, Bempson, Bemson, Bimson, and Bimpson, this is an English medieval surname. It is a patronymic form of the personal name "Ben" as in the recording of Geoffrey Benson, in the Hundred Rolls of Yorkshire for the year 1379. Ben was not from Benjamin but Benedict, an early personal name recorded in England from the very begining of surviving written records in the 6th century. In the Medieval Period roughly the 11th to the 15th century, written records began to appear throughout the British Isles and parts of the continent, following the famous Domesday Book of England in 1086. This became the manual of what became the Civil Service, as for the first time in history every piece of land in the country was accounted for. After that there was no escape from the taxation and land registration process which came to apply to evey person who owned or leased any property. However as universal education did not take place until Victorian times, a combination of local dialects and erratic spelling often created many variations of the same surname. In this case early examples of the surname recordings taken from the surviving church registers include Thomas Bennesson, a witness at the church of St Stephans, Coleman Street, in the city of London, on September 22nd 1577, William Beamson at St Giles Durham, on May 12th 1672, Frances Brimson, a christening witness at St Martins in the Field, Westminster, on June 12th 1746, and Joseph Bempson, at St Martin-Vintry, in the city of London, on March 25th 1764.