The surname of BOSSEN was of the locational group of surnames meaning 'one who came from Bosham' a parish in County Sussex, four miles from Chichester. The name was originally rendered in the Old English form BOSEHAM, literally meaning the dweller at the settlement of BOSSA. The earliest of the name on record appears to be BOSEHAM (without surname) who was listed as a tenant in the Domesday Book of 1086. BOSSUN (without surname) was documented in County Sussex in the year 1202. Most of the place-names that yield surnames are usually of small communities, villages, hamlets, some so insignificant that they are now lost to the map. A place-name, it is reasonable to suppose, was a useful surname only when a man moved from his place of origin to elsewhere, and his new neighbours bestowed it, or he himself adopted it. Edward BOSSUN of Yorkshire, was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of 1379. Most of the European surnames were formed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The process had started somewhat earlier and had continued in some places into the 19th century, but the norm is that in the tenth and eleventh centuries people did not have surnames, whereas by the fifteenth century most of the population had acquired a second name. Later instances of the name mention John Hibberd and Elizabeth BOSAM of Cambridge, who were married in London in the year 1594. (No church recorded), and John Kent and Sarah BOSSON were wed at St. George's Chapel, Mayfair, London in the year 1743. It has long been a matter of doubt when the bearing of coats of arms first became hereditary and it was not until the Crusades that Heraldry came into general use. Men went into battle heavily armed and were difficult to recognise. It became the custom for them to adorn their helmets with distinctive crests, and to paint their shields with animals and the like. Coats of arms accompanied the development of surnames, becoming hereditary in the same way. The associated coat of arms is recorded in Sir Bernard Burkes General Armory. Ulster King of Arms in 1884. |
