This unusual name is one of the patronymic forms of the medieval English personal name "Batt", and means "son of Batt" or "Bate", itself either a pet form of "Bartholomew" or from an olde English pre 7th Century personal name "Bata". Bartholomew is derived from the Aramaic patronymic "bartalmay", which means "having many furrows" and therefore "rich in land", and was a very popular personal name in the Middle Ages, partly due to the fame of St. Bartholomew, the patron saint of tanners, vintners and butlers. The Olde English "Bata" is though to derive from the word "batt", cudgel, used as a byname for a stout, thickset man. The modern surname from either source can also be found as Battson, Battison, Baison, Baitson, Batts and Batson. Martha, daughter of Richard and Sarah Battson was christened in January 1642 in London. One Thomas Bateson is registered in the Poll Tax Records, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Bate de Butwick, Lincolnshire, which was dated 1273, in the Hundred Rolls, Lincolnshire, during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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.

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