Bussey

This most interesting and unusual name is one of the many French names found in England. This particular name is of French locational origin from any of several places in Normandy: Bouche (Orne), Boucey (Manche), or Bucy-de-Lond (Aisne). All of these places derived their names from a Latin personal name "Buccius", a derivative of "bucca", mouth, plus the local suffix "-acum". The earliest recorded namebearer (see below) came from "Bouche", arriving with William the Conqueror during the Norman Invasion of 1066. Alternatively, the surname may in some instances, be of English locational origin from "Bushey" in Hertfordshire, recorded as "Bissei" in the Domesday Book of 1086. This placename has derived from the Old French "boisseie", "a place covered with wood", from the Olde English pre 7th Century "bysc", bush, thicket. One Robert Buscy appeared in the Curia Regis Rolls of Sussex in 1208, and William Bussy was recorded in 1300, in the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society. Sir John Bussy (died 1399) was Speaker of the House of Commons and Sheriff of Lincoln in 1379. Robert Bussey married Esther Reynolds in 1777, at St. George's, Hanover Square, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert de Buci (de Boci), which was dated 1086, in the Domesday Book of Northumberland, during the reign of King William 1, known as "William 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.