The Hussey Surname

The Origins of Hussey

Up until 1100 AD or so, an individual usually only had one name. As the civilized world became more densely populated, a way to distinguish between people with the same name was needed. The method most often adopted was to derive a second name. This new last name was often based on a person's occupation, the location where he lived, a particular distinguishing feature or his father's name. Well into the 19th century the majority of people were illiterate. Therefore, when their names were written it was a scribe or clerk who recorded their name for them. Names were spelled phonetically and the individual, being illiterate, was unable to ensure a consistent spelling which lead to a wide variation in the spelling of names.

The Hussey name is Norman in origin. It is derived from "de Houssaye" which means "one who wears hose". Houssaye is derived from "hose", a French word meaning booted or shod. This is an interesting, although probably coincidental, connection to the cordwainers of the family. While records in England and Ireland show that many Hussey's were shoemakers, there were at least as many that were involved in other occupations.

Experts believe there are two major branches of the Hussey family in the United States; one branch originating in England, and the other in Ireland. The English branch began with Huburt Huse (Herbert de Husey), who sailed with William the Conquerer to England in 1066. His two sons, Henry Huse and William Huse were the first of the line that includes many Dukes and Earls. Members of the English branch were the first to migrate to America. Stephen Hussey and his wife Theodate settled in Boston in 1632. Stephen was a Quaker and may have left under pressure from the Church of England.

The Irish branch was started by another offspring of Huburt Huse (Herbert de Husey) who lived in County Meath, near Dublin, during the middle of 11 AD. The story is that in 1170 the Hussey's helped defeat the Danes and drive them from that part of Ireland. The first of the Irish line known to have immigrated to the New World was Robert Hussey who settled in the Barbados in 1680 with his wife, children and servants.

The "major branch" theory is true as far as it goes. It doesn't consider the "minor branches" The Scots, of which there were many Hussey's, imigrated to North Carolina directly in the early 1700's. Data indicates there were over 10,000 Scots in North Carolina by 1750.

Before typewriters when most documents were hand written, there were many hand writing conventions or shortcuts in common usage that are no longer used today. One in particular that bears on the Hussey name was the use of a character that looked like an oversized "p" to represent the occurrence of doubles S's ("ss") in a word. Therefore in many old documents "Hussey" appears as "Hupey" or "Hupsey" and "Jesse" appears as "Jepe" or "Jepse".