Whisson

This is an English dialectal locational surname. It derives from one of the villages called 'Weston' of which there are several examples, and all have the same meaning of the 'tun', which in this case is a single farm or small hamlet, to the west (of a larger village), or in the case of 'Weston-super-Mare', the 'tun' to the west by the sea. The local dialect particularly in the West Country itself and in Kent-Sussex would submerge the central 't' into a double or single 's', to give a wide range of individual surnames such as Wesson, Weson, Wasson, Wason, Wessing, Wison, and many others. These are old surnames in the own right, and recordings are found as far back as the 16th century. Examples of these include Alyce Wisone, who married John Temple at Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex, on June 16th 1594, and Alyce Wesson who married Robert Taylor at Enfield, also Middlesex, on July 17th 1634. Other recordings taken at random are those of Roberte Wisson, whose daughter Ann was christened at St Botolphs without Aldergate, London, on August 30th 1645, and Charles Whisson who married Ann Robinson at St Giles Cripplegate, London, on July 31st 1768. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Godwinus de Westune, which was dated 1086, in the Domesday Book of Huntingdon, during the reign of King William 1st, known as 'The Conqueror', 1066 - 1087. 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.