Chasmar

This unusual surname is of early medieval English origin, and is a locational name from some minor or unrecorded place, perhaps a "lost" village. There are an estimated seven to ten thousand villages and hamlets that have now disappeared from Britain since the 12th Century; the prime cause of these "disappearances" was the enforced "clearing" and dispersal of the former inhabitants to make way for sheep pastures at the height of the wool-trade in the 15th Century, and natural causes such as the Black Death of 1348, in which an eighth of the population perished. The original place is believed to have been in Surrey because of the high incidence of early recordings from that county, and the component elements of the placename are most likely the Middle English "chase", hunt (from the Old French "chasse, chasser", to hunt, chase), with the Middle English "more" (Olde English pre 7th Century "mor"), moor, waste upland, fen; hence, "moor of the hunt or chase". In the modern idiom the surname can be found as Chasmer, Chasemer, Chasemar, Chasmar, Chasemoor, Chassmore and Chasemore. The marriage of Elizabeth Chasmar and Joseph Couchman took place on April 15th 1762, at Benenden, Kent, and William, son of Felix and Susanna Chasmar, was christened on July 11th 1790, at Westmeston, Sussex. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard Chasemoore, which was dated July 19th 1545, a christening witness at Abinger, Surrey, during the reign of King Henry V111, known as "Bluff King Hal", 1509 - 1547. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.