Upson


Select Upson Surname Genealogy

Upson looks as it is a patronymic "son of" surname.  But it isn't.  Instead it's locational, from the place name Ubbeston near Heveningham in Suffolk (a name derived from the Old English personal name Ubbi or Ubber plus tun meaning "settlement," and originally Ubbi's tun).  Upson was apparently the local pronunciation of Ubbeston.

Select Upson Resources on The Internet

  • Upson. Thomas Upson of Farmington, Connecticut and Berrien county, Michigan descendants.
Select Upson Ancestry

England.  Upson is primarily a name of East Anglia, stretching from Suffolk south into Essex and the London area. 

John Upson appeared in the hearth tax records of Suffolk in 1524.  Stephen Upson, a sawyer, left his home at Stonham Aspal for America on the Increase in 1635.  The Upson name was being recorded in Able Men of Suffolk in 1638 at various locations and in Debenham parish records by the 1640's.  One family line began with the birth of Robert Upson in Mendlesham in 1836.  In more recent times the England footballer Matthew Upson was born in Stowmarket.

In Essex, John Upson was a farmer in the Rivenhall area in the mid 19th century.  And today the Upson name is to be found in the village of Hatfield Peveral near Chelmsford where they run - as they have for four generations - Upson's Farm.  Robert Upson, a seaman from Harwich, emigrated to New Zealand in the early 1900's.

America.
  Thomas Upson was the forebear of the Upsons in America.  Not that much is known about him prior to his arrival in America.

"The name of the port from which he sailed, the name of his first wife, and the record of the birth of his children have not been discovered, after much research."

Thomas left his wife and daughter in England and sailed for America in 1639, landing in Saybrook, Connecticut from whence he made his way to Hartford and then, a year later, to Farmington.  His line has been traced in The Upson Family in America, published in 1940 by the Upson Family Association.

Freeman Upson departed from Connecticut for Portage county, Ohio in the 1810's (also arriving in Ohio, but a little later and into Lake county, were Job and Maria Upson from Suffolk in England).  One Upson line from Ohio moved out to Wisconsin.  Other Upsons settled in Berrien county, Michigan.  Charles Upson, a lawyer, served as Michigan Attorney General at the time of the Civil War.

The Upson name moved South in 1810 when Stephen Upson left his home in Waterbury, Connecticut to practice law in Lexington, Georgia.  He became the head of the Georgia Bar.  On his death in 1824 the Georgia General Assembly created and named Upson county in his honor.

Select Upson Miscellany

If you would like to read more, click on the miscellany page for further stories and accounts:


Select Upson Names


Stephen Upson was a prominent lawyer in Georgia in the eatly 1800's after whom Upson county in Georgia was named.
Matthew Upson is a footballer for West Ham who played for England in the 2010 World Cup.

Select Upsons Today
  • 1,500 in the UK (most numerous in Essex)
  • 600 in America (most numerous in Florida)
  • 700 elsewhere (most numerous in Australia).



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