Sussams

Recorded in several forms including Sussams, Sussems, Susams, Sushams, Sussum and possibly Susshan, as well as probably others, this is apparently an English surname. It has been recorded in the surviving church registers of the city of London since at least the time of King Charles 1st (1645 - 1649) and is therefore unlikely to have a foreign origin. In our opinion it is locational, and a slang pronunciation of some place, as certainly there is no such place or anything quite like any of the surname spellings that we have been able to find in the gazetters of the British Isles for the past three centuries. The best that we can say from fifteen years of research is that the suffix ending will almost certainly have been the Olde English word "ham" meaning a homestead. Assuming that this is correct and that the prefix letter is S, we have narrowed the possibilities down to Sessingham in Sussex variously spelt over the years as Seaxingaham and Sassingham, and a prime target for "fusing". Unfortunately we have no means of checking as locational surnames are usually "from" names, and therefore given to people after they left their original homes to move somewhere else. Early examples of surname recordings from surviving registers include Alyce Susams at St Dunstans Stepney, city of London, on June 29th 1631, and down in Sussex Joane Susshan as spelt, at Chiddingly on April 23rd 1635.