This most interesting surname is a
patronymic or
metronymic name composed of the element "Jull", a
diminutive form of the
personal name "Julian", from the
Latin "Iulianus" (from "Iovis", the supreme god), and the patronymic ending "-son", hence the surname translates as "the son of Jull". The personal name Julian is first recorded circa 1154 in the Transcripts of
Charters relating to the Gilbertine Houses (Lincolnshire), while the diminutive Jull first appears as "Golle" in the
Pipe Rolls of Essex in 1203. The surname Jewson first appears in records in the early 14th Century (see below). However, the name may also have derived from a feminine form of the
medieval personal name, that is "Jouet(te), Juette", as one Juetta
de Arches (died 1206) was a rich and powerful
Norman heiress living at Thorpe Arch near York, who outlived her second husband by thirty years. Alice Jueson was
christened on April 6th 1565, at Rylstone, Yorkshire, while William, son of Robert and Sarah Jewson, was christened on February 27th 1686, at St. Giles' Cripplegate, London. The surname is also established in Canada, as a family called Jewison
emigrated to Canada from Yorkshire, circa 1803. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard Juwesone, Jullesome, which was dated 1333, in the "
Court Rolls of the Borough of Colchester", 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.