Seston

This most interesting and curious name is one of the dialectal variants of "Syston", which is itself of English habitational origin from a place of that name in both Leicestershire and Lincolnshire, the former recorded as "Sitestone" in the Domesday Book of 1086, while the latter appeared as "Sidestan" in the same records. Both placenames may derive from the old English pre 7th Century "sida stan", meaning "broadstone", but the place in Leicestershire may also be composed of the medieval English personal name "Sigehaeth", plus the Old English element "tun", settlement, enclosure". During the Middle Ages, when migration for the purpose of job seeking was becoming more common people often took their former village name as a means of identification, hence placenames were a main factor in surname formation. One Ellen, daughter of Edward Sistone was christened at St. James, Clerkenwell, London on March 4th 1616 at St. Gregory by St. Paul, London. Bradford Seston married Ann Ratliff on June 3rd 1620, at St. Olave, Mart Street, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William Syston, which was dated August 14th, 1586, christening witness at St. Andrew, Holborn, London, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, Good Queen Bess, 1558-1603. 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.