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The history of the Sessums family name begins after the Norman Conquest of 1066. They lived in Gloucestershire, at the manor of Siston, from whence their name was derived.
The surname Sessums was first found in Gloucestershire where they held a family seat as Lords of the manor of Siston, held at the time of the taking of the Domesday Book, a survey of England taken by Duke William of Normandy after his conquest of England in Hastings in 1066 A.D. In this survey the village of Siston was held by Roger de Berkeley. Conjecturally they were descended from Roger, and as it was the tradition of Norman families, the second or third son usually adopted the name of his manor or lands.
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Sessums research. Another 70 words (5 lines of text) covering the years 1172, 1661, 1690, 1720, 1749 and 1783 are included under the topic Early Sessums History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Anglo-Norman names are characterized by a multitude of spelling variations. When the Normans became the ruling people of England in the 11th century, they introduced a new language into a society where the main languages of Old and later Middle English had no definite spelling rules. These languages were more often spoken than written, so they blended freely with one another. Contributing to this mixing of tongues was the fact that medieval scribes spelled words according to sound, ensuring that a person's name would appear differently in nearly every document in which it was recorded. The name has been spelled Siston, Sistons, Syston, Sistun, Systun, Sisson, Sissons, Sysun, Sisun, Sissun, Sison, Sisons, Syson, Sysson, Session, Sesion and many more.
More information is included under the topic Early Sessums Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
In the United States, the name Sessums is the 18,445th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. 1
For many English families, the political and religious disarray that plagued their homeland made the frontiers of the New World an attractive prospect. Thousands migrated, aboard cramped disease-ridden ships. They arrived sick, poor, and hungry, but were welcomed in many cases with far greater opportunity than at home in England. Many of these hardy settlers went on to make important contributions to the emerging nations in which they landed. Among early immigrants bearing the name Sessums or a variant listed above were: