The surname of ASHMAN was a baptismal name 'the son of Ashman' one who lived at the ash-trees, from residence nearby. It was occasionally used as an occupational name meaning a shipman or sailor and sometimes with reference to a pirate. Early records of the name mention Assemannus (without surname) listed in the Domesday Book of 1086. Many of the early names recorded in medieval documents denote noble families but many also indicate migration from the continent during, and in the wake of, the Norman invasion of 1066. There was a constant stream of merchants, workman and others arriving in England during this time. In 1086 the Record of Great Inquisition of lands of England, their extent, value, ownership and liabilities was made by order of William The Conqueror. It is known as the Domesday book. Nicholas Ashman, bailiff of Yarmouth in 1299. Robert Ashman was a bailiff of Yarmouth in 1316 and John Essheman appears in County Kent in the year 1317. Baptised. Hannah Ashman, St. Jame's, Clerkenwell, London in 1740. John Ashman married Elizabeth Skillen, St. George's, Hanover Square, London in 1760. Over the centuries, most people in Europe have accepted their surname as a fact of life, as irrevocable as an act of God, however much the individual may have liked or disliked the surname, they were stuck with it, and people rarely changed them by personal choice. A more common form of variation was in fact involuntary, when an official change was made, in other words, a clerical error. Among the humbler classes of European society, and especially among illiterate people, individuals were willing to accept the mistakes of officials, clerks and priests as officially bestowing a new version of their surname, just as they had meekly accepted the surname they had been born with. In North America, the linguistic problems confronting immigration officials at Ellis Island in the 19th century were legendary as a prolific source of Anglicization. The associated arms are recorded in Sir Bernard Burkes General Armory and Ulster King of Arms in 1884. Registered in Lymington, County Wiltshire.