East Sussex Surnames

BONIFACE

This surname appears across East and West Sussex in the 1881 census, particularly around Brighton and Eastbourne.

BOTTING

The patronymic from Bott is most common in south-east England.

BURTENSHAW

About 60 per cent of all of the Burtenshaws recorded in the 1891 census were living in Sussex.

CHATFIELD

This habitational name derives from Chatfields in (West) Sussex.

FUNNELL

In the surname dictionary Patronymica Britannica (1860), Mark Lower

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argues that this East Sussex name might be a corruption of Fontenelle, in Normandy.

GANDER

This might be an occupational name for a keeper of geese, or a nickname for someone resembling the bird.

HOBDEN

Regular hotspots in the census include Heathfield, Herstmonceux and Keymer.

PACKHAM

This habitational name is thought to come from either Pagham in Sussex or Pakenham in Suffolk.

STONER

This is a topographic name for someone who lived in a house made of stone. business archive to have come in recently is that of Arthur H Cox and Co Ltd of Brighton. This important employer in the town was a pharmaceutical firm established in the 19th century which was bought up by another company in the 1980s.”

Possibly the strangest item held here is the tooth of Gundrada de Warenne (died 1085), wife of William de Warenne, the 1st Earl of Surrey, who founded Lewes Priory and built Lewes Castle.

Remember too that West Sussex Record Office holds East Sussex material, such as the vast archive of the Royal Sussex Regiment. The regiment was raised in 1701 and fought in many of the great conflicts of the past 300 years, including the American War of Independence and the Napoleonic Wars. During the First World War the regiment expanded to 23 battalions, and thousands of men passed through its ranks.