Recorded in several spelllings including Caesar, Caeser, Ceaser, Cesar, and others, this is surely one of the most unusual of all English surnames. Used over the centuries as both a personal and a surname, it was introduced into Northern Europe at about the time of the fasmous Crusades to free the Holy Land from the Muslinm in the 12th century. As a good example 'Cesar Clericus' or Caesar the Clerk, appears in the roll of the Knight Templars (Crusaders) fo rthe county of Yorkshire in the year 1185. As a surname, it was probably a medieval occupational nickname for one who acted the part of Julius Caesar in the travelling theatre and pageants of the period, or possibly one was belived by his peer group to possess the airs or appearance of a Caesar! The surname was nationally prominent in England in Elizabethan times in the 16th Century, as Sir Julius Caesar (1558 - 1636), was the personal physician to Queen Elizabeth Ist (1558 - 1603). Hereditary surnames are very rare in all countries before the year 1200, and particularly in England those were often of French origin, and descendants from the Conquest of 1066. In this case, the first known recorded spelling of the family name is believed to be that of Henry Sesare. This was dated 1334, in the Pipe Rolls of the county of Kent, during the reign of King Edward 111rd of England, known as 'The Father of the Navy', 1327 - 1377. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as the 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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