Fawcett

This interesting name is Anglo-Saxon in origin and is a locational name which can derive from the place called "Fawcett" in Cumberland or from "Facit" in Lancashire. "Fawcett" is recorded in 1247 as "Faxide", and in 1282 as "Fausyde", while "Facit" is first recorded in the Records of Whalley Abbey, Lancashire circa 1250 as "Fagheside". Both places share the same meaning and derivation, which is the "multi-coloured hillside", derived from the Olde English pre 7th Century "fag", "Fah", brightly coloured, variegated, flowery with "side", slope. The modern surname, which can be found in a variety of forms, ranging from "Fawcett", "Fawcitt", "Faws(s)ett" and "Faucett" to "Fausset(t)", "Fasset" and "Fossitt", may also derive from the place called "Forcett" in North Yorkshire which derives from the Old English "ford", ford and "sete", house, settlement. The marriage of John Fawcett and Mary Chater was recorded at St. Mary's church, Aldermary London in 1723. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John del Fawside, which was dated 1332, in the Cumberland Subsidy Rolls, during the reign of King Edward 111, known as "The Father of the Navy", 1327 - 1377. 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.