Musson - Name

Recorded in several forms including Mussan, Mussen, Musson, Muston, and probably others, this interesting surname is Anglo-French and has two possible origins. Firstly, it may be locational from Muston, of which there are two village in the counties of Leicestershire and Yorkshire. They both have the somewhat unusual translation of either the mouse infested settlement, or the settlement by a muddy stream. Secondly the surname may be locational from various minor places in France called Musson, and a derivative of musse, meaning a hiding-place. An early example of the surname is that of John de Muston in the Hundred Rolls of Lincolnshire in 1273, whilst in the church records of Leicestershire we have Joan Musson who married Leonard Lacye at Melton Mowbray on December 10th 1550 and on September 10th 1559, that of Nicholas Mussen who was christened at Scalford.The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Andrew de Muston. This was dated 1216, in the registers known as the Testa de Neville sive Liber Feodorum, during the reign of King Henry 111rd of England, 1216 - 1272. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as the Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.