Hutchison

This is a patronymic i.e. "the son of Huchun", a diminutive form of the personal name "Hugh" (from the Old German "hug", meaning "heart" or "soul"). St. Hugh of Lincoln (1140 - 1200) founded the first Carthusian Monastery in England; the popularity of the name was, in part, due to him. One Huchun Aleyn was recorded in the 1277 Court Rolls of the Manor of Wakefield, Yorkshire. The name was adopted as a surname by the end of the 13th Century: Gilbert Huchun, recorded in the Subsidy Rolls of Sussex, dated 1296. The patronymic appears in the late 14th Century (see below) especially in Northern England and in Scotland. In the modern idiom the surname can be found recorded as Hutchison, Hutchason, Hutchinson and Hutchins. One of the earliest settlers in the New World Colonies was John Hutchinson, who departed from the Port of London, aboard the "Bonaventure", bound for Virginia in January 1634. Recordings from Kent Church Registers include: the marriage of William Hutchison and Jane Pary on March 27th 1759, at St. George's, Gravesend, and the marriage of Richard Hutchison and Susanna Flood on May 15th 1776, at St. Nicholas', Rochester. A Coat of Arms granted to a family of the name is described thus: "Argent (silver) a fess azure (blue) surmounted of three arrows, points downwards, meeting in base proper surmounted of a fess azure charged with a fox courant also proper. Crest - A stag's head erased gules (red) attired or (gold). The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Isota Huchonson, which was dated 1379, in the "Poll Tax Returns Records of Yorkshire", during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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.