SANSOM. St. Sansone, sometimes called St. Sampson, archbishop of Dol, founded a monastery near Rouen (Pentale monasterium in agro Piotomagensi) and after having performed a miracle, by ejecting a serj)eut from a certain cave, left his name to the place (eidem loco uomeu suum reliquit). Slabillon Annal. Bened. adanu. 655 et 831. From that place this family derived their name. The first who bore it in England was Ralph de St. Sansone, brother to Thomas, Ih-st Norman Archbishop of York, who with him had been educated at the charge of Odo, half-brother of the Conqueror. Being described by the Chroniclers as, " de nobilissima Normannorum prosapia " it has been conjectured that he was a scion of the ducal house. He was

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.