This interesting and unusual name, with variant spellings Tesimon(d), Tiseman, Tesmund, Tesman, Tyssyman etc., is of Germanic origin from any of the various Slavonic personal names, for example, Techmir, having as their first element "tech" meaning "comfort" or "consolation", which became "tess" in German. The addition of the Old High German suffix "man" to a personal name usually indicated "servant of"; hence, "servant of Tess" with Tessey being a diminutive form. The final "d" on "man" or "man" is an excrescent. One, Thomas Tesmond was sheriff of Norwick in 1559, and Oswald Tesimond, (1563 - 1635), a jesuit, educated at Rome was charged with complicity in the "Gunpowder plot". He escaped abroad, however, and died at Naples. On May 26th 1628 George Tyssyman and Jane Bland were married in St. James, Clerkenwell, London and on February 15th 1753 Mary Tesseyman, an infant was christened in St. Matthew's, Bethnal Green. A Coat of Arms granted to the family is recorded heraldically in Riestap's, "Armorial General" and depicts a shield divided vertically red and silver, and charged with a deer's antler and a horn, the latter representing plenty. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Bryan Tesyman, which was dated 1537, "Corpus Christi Guild Records", Yorkshire, during the reign of King Henry V111, "Bluff King Hal", 1509 - 1547. 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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