I was recently using freebmd and I decided to search by soundex. Rather than
using Cuzner + soundex, I used Cousner + soundex. The earlies results came back
for the baptism of three children of Anthony Cowsner at Bath Abbey in 1583-1591.
I originally discounted it, but then got to thinking that from this period the
registries were probably still in Latin. In the cursive scripts of the period
they often used abbreviations that are not common now and of specific interest,
the U, V, and W could all be expressed with V and the actual sound was implied
by context and position. So if the actual registry had Covsner, perhaps the
transcriber assumed the "v" should be a "w".

Does anyone have access to these registers to see the actual name as written? If
so, these names would be the oldest Cuzner references I've ever found. It still
isn't earlier than the beginning of Huguenot emigration starting inf 1562 with
the wars of religion. It also indicates that searching more in Bath might prove
useful.

Any thoughts?

Steve