Fosken

Recorded in a number of spel;lings including Foscen, Foscon, Fosken and Foskin, this is apparently an English surname. It is very rare, and does not seem to have been recorded in the surviving church registers until the year 1617. At that time we have the very unusual recording of St Mente Shuttell and seemingly, but not necessarily his wife Lizabeth Fosken, who were witnesses at the christening of a child rgistered as Henry Fosken at the church of St Andrews, in the borough of Holborn, city of London, on May 7th of that year. As regards origination and meaning, the make up of the surname would suggest that it derives from the Olde English but also French word "foss" meaning a ditch or dyke, or in some cases a road with a ditch at each side. The suffix ending of "en" is the dative plural, and as with the surname Fielden describes one who lives by "fields", and this surname may well describe a person who lived by ditches. Clearly if there was such a place as Fosken or similar, there is no longer, and the place name must be counted amongst the five thousand or so "lost" medieval British and Irish villages, which gave rise to many of todays locational surnames. A slightly later recording showing another spelling development is that of Aaron Foscon, who married Margaret Betterman, on Christmas Day 1645, at the famous church of St Dunstans in the East, Stepney.