Welcome to the first newsletter for the Causton One-Name Study. My name is John Causton and I live in Colchester, Essex, England. I have been researching my paternal Causton family ancestry since September 1995 and have traced them back to the early 16th century in Great Clacton, Essex, England. In October 1997 I registered the Causton One-Name Study with The Guild of One-Name Studies. For those of you that are not familiar with one name studies the techniques used are different from ordinary family history research in that all instances of the Causton surname, past and present and usually world wide are recorded. The aim of the Study is to use the information gathered to help all those researching the Causton name and also those whose researches connect their families or studies to Caustons by marriage. This might be by supplying information, suggesting avenues for research or by putting researchers of the same branch or area in touch. At this stage the study is still young but as information is gathered it will become increasingly possible to disentangle the separate strands of Causton family history.
After Mary Tudor was crowned Queen of England on 5 August 1554 she declared her intention of returning England to Rome, that is re-establishing the Roman Catholic faith as the official
religion. Protestant bishops were deposed and the rood and the mass were returned to the churches. The first of the Maryan martyrs were bishops Latimer and Ridley, burnt at the stake in 1555. Foxe in his Book of Martyrs, published in 1563, records the details of the arrest and trial of a Thomas Causton as a heretic. We must remember that Foxe was a partisan writer and thus may have embellished some of the details. Thomas Causton lived in the parish of Thundruft, near Rayleigh with his friend Thomas Highbed. The two were arrested, along with Thomas Causton's servant, for refusing to renounce their Protestant beliefs. They were held at Colchester and questioned several times by Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London and his chaplains. The bishop was said to have been afraid of the consequences of imprisoning these men who were highly esteemed in the county. Thomas Causton and Thomas Highbed were condemned and sent to London. After 14 days at Newgate goal they were led through the city and delivered to the Sheriff of Essex, William Harris of Cricksea. They were bound to the carts during their journey because of fears that an attempt might be made to release them.
Thomas Causton was burnt at the stake with three others at Rayleigh, Essex. His land in Tillingham, Essex was confiscated but was later restored to his family after the end of Queen Mary's reign. On 2 August 1557 ten men from Colchester, Essex were executed under the castle walls and by the Balkerne Gate. Altogether 70 Essex men perished in the counter reformation fires.
References: Essex in History by Kenneth Neale; Foxe's Book of Martyrs; The History of Rochford Hundred.
Many of the recipients of this newsletter will asking 'why has he sent me a copy - I am not researching Causton'. To this I would reply, you may or you may not be. I hope this will be clearer when you read on. My researches, especially in early English parish registers, have shown that there a wide variation in the spelling of surnames. This is especially true before about 1850, after which surname spelling became relatively fixed. I believe that a significant factor in the variety of spellings found was strong local dialects and accents being interpreted by clerics completing church baptism, marriage and burial registers. They were not usually born in the same area and wrote down surnames as they sounded or, possibly worse, recorded what they thought the surname should be. I think that it is quite likely that many researchers giving Cason, Caston, Corston, Coston and similar names as their interest may in fact be following families whose name was Causton wrongly recorded at some time.
This Study includes many spelling variations, some of which have become mutations - that is the spelling variation has become fixed and has been passed down to subsequent generations. The Study data bases contain occurrences of Caston, Causon, Causten, Caustin, Causton, Cawson, Cawsten, Cawston, Coiston, Corston, Cosen, Cossen, Costen, Costin, Coston and Coyston. There are also some Casons and Cassons. From the point of view of gathering data both for the Study and researching individual branches of Causton family history the most problematical surnames are Cason/Casson and Cosen/Cossen (a variant of Cousins) as these surnames are more numerous than Causton. They are correspondingly less likely to be Causton variants. In subsequent newsletters I will explore some of the evidence for the assertion that some of these names may be variations or mutations of Causton as well as the most common variation, Cawston. Failure to find an ancestor can be caused by searching for too narrow a range of spellings. An example from my own experience concerns a great aunt Ellen Causton, born, I knew, in Clacton, Essex about 1856. I could not find the registration for her birth until I looked under Cason. There I found her birth registered under Ellen Cason on 15 November 1856!
I would be interested to hear of spelling variations that you have come across.
Causton or Cawston is probably a location name, given to some one who came from Cawston. Early examples of the use of the name usually included de before the surname and this is consistent with it being a location name. Some early examples that I have found are
The de is not always used in early references and its use gradually died out. By 1350 its use was not common but I have seen a late example (William de Cawston or Caston, County Norfolk, England in 1673).
The place name Cawston may have arisen from a combination of the old Scandinavian (Norse) personal name Kalfr meaning a calf and the old English tun, meaning an enclosure or settlement. Thus Cawston was a farmstead or village belonging to Kalfr. The name could thus have arisen from about the eighth or ninth century AD, the time of the Viking invasions. I have found three villages or parishes in England with the name Cawston, all of which could have been a source of the Causton name
Only the first two are shown on today's ordinance survey maps. I have seen references to a Causton and Causton Hill in Devon but I have not located this. There is also a Causton Wood in Kent - map reference 51o05.9' 0o36.4'E. Are there any other Causton landmarks in the world?
A demographic study of the geographical distribution of the Causton name in early English IGI listings strongly suggests that the Cawston in Norfolk, England as the main and possibly the only source of the name. Details of this study will be published in a later news letter.
Current projects include
These projects are at various stages of completion. The value of the data bases will depend on your continuing contributions. Volunteers are needed to assist in these Causton One-Name Study projects and also to work on census and other data from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and USA.
I have had an enquiry from Sandra Stevens (GOON member 2320, researching Hazelwood) regarding three instances of Hazelwoods marrying Caustons. Does anyone have information on the marriage of George Hazelwood to Ann Causton on February 29 1812 at Euston, Suffolk, England, the marriage of David Hazelwood to Mary Causton on July 11 1825 at Rushford, Norfolk, England or the marriage of James Hazelwood to Martha Causton on December 27 1780 at Soham, Cambridgeshire, England? George and David Hazelwood were brothers and this raises the possibility that Ann and Mary were sisters. Dare I ask whether you have any problems?
Please let me know what you would like to see. Possibilities include - amendments to the researcher list, lost persons or problem corner, profiles of individual researchers, outlines of individual branches of research, letters, articles on areas of interest such as companies, individuals, places, emigrations, spelling variations etc.
The Study newsletter is free to all who are interested. All you have to do is register your interest by contacting me my mail or e-mail. Seventy six copies of this newsletter have been distributed to researchers on the list plus copies for the libraries at The Society for Genealogists, The Guild of One-Name Studies and the Essex Society for Family History. Twenty three of the newsletters were sent by e-mail. Because of the expense of producing and mailing this newsletter the future circulation will be restricted to those who have expressed an interest in receiving further copies.