Blunsum

This interesting name with variant spelling Blumsom, Blunsden, Blunsen, Blunsum, etc. is of English locational origin from any of the places "Blundeston", in Suffolk, Blunsdon in Wiltshire and "Bluntisham" in Huntingdonshire. The first of these, recorded in the Curia Rolls of Suffolk in 1203, as "Blundeston", is composed of the Old English personal name "Blunt", and the Old English "tun", meaning homestead. The place in Wiltshire, called "Bluntesdone" in the Domesday Book of 1086, comes from "Blunt" also, and the second element "-dun", meaning "hill or mountain". Bluntisham in Huntingdonshire, recorded as "Bluntesham" in 1050 in the Codex Diplomaticus aevi Saxonici, derives from "Blunt" and the common English place-name element, "-ham", meaning village, manor, thus "Blunts ham". One Robert de Blundeston appeared in the Subsidy Rolls of Suffolk in 1327, while a John Bluntsham was recorded in the History of Norfolk in 1400 as the rector of Snoring Parra. The London Church Registers record the marriage of John Blomson to Hellen Hoye at St. Benet Fink on October 5th 1596, and the christening of Robert Blumson on October 23rd 1636, at St. Margarets, Westminster. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Brian de Bluntesdon, which was dated 1255, in the Hundred Rolls of Wiltshire, during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. 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.