The meaning/origin of the name Tapscott

The Last Name of TAPSCOTT was a variant of the name Tapper and was an occupational name 'the tapper' one who tapped the barrell, an Inkeeper. Occupational last names primarily denoted the actual occupation followed by the individual. At what period they became hereditary is a difficult problem. Many of the occupation names were descriptive and could be varied. In the Middle Ages, at least among the Christian population, people did not usually pursue uniqueized occupations exclusively to the extent that we do today, and they would, in fact, turn their hand to any form of work that needed to be done, particularly in a large house or mansion, or on farms and smallholdings. In early documents, last names frequently refer to the actual holder of an office, whether the church or state. A north of England name, which was extrapolated from the Old English TOEPPA. Early records of the name mention John le Tapscote, County Cambridge in 1273. Richard Tappscot, registered at Oxford Univeristy in 1614. Thomas Tapper (aged 18) embarked to America on the 'St. Christopher' in 1635. (List of Emigrants). William Tapper married Phebe Davies at St. George's Chapel, Mayfair, London in 1750. The names introduced into Britain by the Normans during and in the wake of the Invasion of 1066, are nearly all territorial in origin. The followers of William the Conqueror were a pretty mixed lot, and while some of them brought the names of their castles and villages in Normandy with them, many were adventurers of different nationalities attached to William's standard by the hope of plunder, and possessing no family or territorial names of their own. Those of them who acquired lands in England were called by their manors, while others took the name of the offices they held or the military titles given to them, and sometimes, a younger son of a Norman landowner, on receiving a grant of land in his new home dropped his paternal name and adopted that of his newly acquired property. The Norman Conquest of 1066 revolutionized our personal nomenclature. The Old English name system was little by little broken up and Old English names became less common, and were replaced by new names from the continent.