Newson

This interesting name is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and has two district derivations. Firstly, Newson may be a patronymic form of the surname New, which originated as a nickname for a newcomer to an area, derived from the Middle English "newe", new, a development of the Olde English pre 7th Century "neowe, niwe". The modern surname from this source is found particularly in Norfolk. Secondly, Newson may be a variant form of the locational surname Newsom(e), which derives from any of the places in Northern England named with the Olde English phrase "(aet thaem) neowan husum", (at the) new houses. These places include: Newsham, in Co. Durham, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Northumberland and Yorkshire; Newsam in Yorkshire; and Newsholme in East and West Yorkshire. Many of these places are recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Neuhuse" or "Newehusum". The first recording of the surname, below, is from a locational source, and other early examples include Robert de Neusom (1275, Yorkshire), and Willelmus de Newsom (1379, ibid.). In London, Stephen Newsom was christened at St. Martin Orgar, on May 30th 1553, and the marriage of Cuthbert Newson and Janet Brock was recorded in Adwick le Street, Yorkshire, on September 26th 1568. An early Coat of Arms granted to a Newson family depicts, on a black shield, three red crosses crosslet on a silver fess cotised gold. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert de Neusum, which was dated 1195, in the "Pipe Rolls of Yorkshire", during the reign of Richard 1, known as "Richard 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.