This unusual and interesting name is of Medieval English origin, and is one of the metonymic forms of the personal name "Moll(e)", a pet form of "Mary", one of the most popular female given names since it was brought back from the east by the Crusaders after 1100. "Mary" is generally held to mean "wished-for child", or, sometimes "star of the sea", and derives from the Aramaic "Maryam", in Latin "Maria", Mowson, Mosson and Mosen as metronymic forms meaning "son of Moll" are unusual in that there are only a very few surviving examples of names derived from the first bearer's mother, rather than father. The name devlopment includes (in London), Katherine Mowson (1580), Agnes Mossoun (1593) and Mary Mosen (1599). Geoffrey Mosson and Margery Wheille were married at St. Bartholmew-the-Less, London in 1570. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Margarita Mowson, which was dated 1549, Register of the Parish Church of Rothwell, Yorkshire, during the reign of King Edward VI, the Boy King, 1547 - 1553. 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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