The name BOISEN was originally derived from the Old French 'boissell' probably originally a name for one who measured out corn or a maker of bushel-vessels. The earliest French hereditary surnames are found in the 12th century, at more or less the same time as they arose in England, but they are by no means common before the 13th century, and it was not until the 15th century that they stabilized to any great extent; before then a surname might be handed down for two or three generations, but then abandoned in favour of another. In the south, many French surnames have come in from Italy over the centuries, and in Northern France, Germanic influence can often be detected. The name was brought into England in the wake of the Norman Invasion of 1066, and Roger Buisel, who was listed as a tenant in the Domesday Book of 1066, appears to be the first of the name on record. The names introduced into Britain by the Normans during the Invasion of 1066 were of three kinds. There were names of Norse origin which their ancestors had carried into Normandy; names of Germanic origin which the Frankish conquerors had brought across the Rhine and which had ousted the old Celtic and Latin names from France, and Biblical names and names of Latin and Greek saints. These names they retained even after the customs and language of the natives of Northern France had been adopted by them. Other records of the name include Nicholas del Boise who was documented in the year 1201 in London. John de Boys was rector of Fincham, County Norfolk in the year 1350. Baptised. John Thomas Boys at Canterbury Cathedral in 1590. John Fendall married Susanna Boyce at St. George's, Hanover Square, London in 1760. The bulk of European surnames in countries such as England and France were formed in the 13th and 14th centuries. The process started earlier and continued in some places into the 19th century, but the norm is that in the 11th century people did not have surnames, whereas by the 15th century they did. |
