This seemingly innocent looking surname has posed us a number of problems. It is locational and of Anglo-Saxon origins. It derives either from the village of Tatsfield in Surrey or possibly from a now 'lost' medieval site called 'Tata's feld' or similar. The Surrey village is recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book in the spelling of 'Tattlesfeld', and given the passage of over nine hundred years, this is as near to the modern surname as one could reasonably expect, except for one important point. We have been unable to establish definite recordings of the surname before the 18th century in London. This is much too late by at least two centuries for the establishment of a surname, unless there was some other unexplained reason. It is possible that the first name holder that we have been able to definately prove may have adopted the surname 'Tattersfield', people have changed their surnames since the beginning of surnames in the 12th century, or it may have been an adoption of an 'English' style name by an incoming foreign settler. This was a common occurrence between 1600 and 1750 with Huguenot immigrants, however the early recordings invariably display continental christian names such as Pierre or Johannes. Not so in this case, furthermore Tattersfield as a surname is not recorded in Surrey at all. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Tattersfield, which was dated September 14th 1774, a witness at St George in the East, Stepney, London, during the reign of King George 111, known as 'Farmer George', 1760 - 1820. 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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