The village of Cause in the modern spelling lies some ten miles South West of Shrewsbury, Shropshire and is the probable source of this unusual habitational surname. The name, both village and surname describes one resident by or even or a "caucey" - a medieval Anglo-French dialectal term for a causeway or raised road. The village in pre Norman 1066 times was recorded as Alretun, translating as the "place of the Alder trees" and was renamed sometime before 1165 as Chaus, a short form of the original French "Cauciee." There is a suggestion that a place in France of the same spelling once existed, and this is probably true, but if so the meaning still remains the same.It is also probable that in the late Middle Ages, the village was "cleared" to facilitate sheep farming. When this happened the inhabitants were driven off, and on their wanderings they took as their surname, the name of their former village. This was the usual source of variant spelling forms, since few could read or write. Certainly by the 16th century the name appears in London as "Causse" before later developments to Causa and Caush. The recordings include Francis Causa of Southwark on May 14th 1701 and John Caush, who married Sarah Hill at the church of St Clement Danes, London, on July 23rd 1792. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Causse, which was dated October 13th 1549, married Ales Eaton at St Mary Colechurch, London, during the reign of King Edward V1, known as "The boy king", 1547 - 1554. 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.

© Copyright: Name Origin Research 1980 - 2024