Pascoe

This interesting Cornish name is an example of a surname developed from a baptismal name given in honour of a feast-day. Pascoe is of early medieval English origin, and derives from the medieval male given name "Pask", itself a pet form of Pascal with the addition of the diminutive suffix "-oe, -ow". The personal name Pascal was introduced into England by the Normans after the Conquest of 1066, and derives from the Latin "Paschalis" from "pascha", Easter; its popularity throughout Europe was largely due to the honour in which the festival of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection was held by Christians, but it was also given in honour of a 9th Century pope and saint who had borne the name. The surname first appears on record in the latter part of the 14th Century, and in the modern idiom takes the forms: Pascoe, Pascow and Pascho. One John Pascowe was noted in "A Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient Deeds", Cornwall, dated 1443. On September 20th 1598, Thomas, son of Richarde Pascoe, was christened in St. Columb Minor, Cornwall. Francis Polkinghorne Pascoe (1813 - 1893), the renowned entomologist (M.R.C.S., 1835), formed a great collection, now in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Simon Pascoe, which was dated 1372, witness in the "Court Rolls of the Borough of Colchester", Essex, 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.