Chessman

This interesting name of Medieval English origin is a variant spelling of Cheeseman, itself one of the earliest and most important of the medieval job descriptive surnames. "Cheese" derives from the Anglo-Saxon "cese" of the pre 8th century and "man" means "a servant or worker", a maker or seller of cheese. There are no less than ten modern variant spellings including Cheeseman, Cheasman, Chesman, Chismon, Chessman, Chisman, etc., whilst the name development has included William Le Chesman (1260 Cambridge), Thomas Le Chusman (1327 Sussex), Alice Chisman (1327 Somerset). Thomas Cheeseman (1760 - 1835) was a famous draughtsman and engraver in London. Amongst the sample recordings of namebearers in London are the christenings of Charles Chismon on November 1st 1844 at St. Paul's, Deptford, and that of Ernest Rewben Chismon on January 28th 1849 at St. Mary's, Lewisham. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Baldwin Le Chesemangere which was dated 1189, in the "Pipe Rolls of Kent" during the reign of King Richard 1, known as "The Lionheart" 1189 - 1199 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.