534 Global MATTHEWSON Family Members

MATTHEWSON Family History

This interesting surname is a patronymic form of the Hebrew male given name "Mattathiah", meaning "gift of the lord", which was first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 in the Latin form "Matthaeus" and the French "Mathieu". The patronymic form, which first appears in the late 14th Century, is also found in the modern idiom as "Ma(t)thew(e)s and Mathewson", while one John Mathows was recorded in 1395, in the Records of Whitby Abbey (Yorkshire). Patronymic surnames arose because European society has been patriarchal throughout history, and as a result the given name of the male head of the household has been handed on as a distinguishing name to successive generations.