Family name origins & meanings
- English : from Middle English pese ‘pea’, hence a metonymic occupational name for a grower or seller of peas, or a nickname for a small and insignificant person. The word was originally a collective singular (Old English peose, pise, from Latin pisa) from which the modern English vocabulary word pea is derived by folk etymology, the singular having been taken as a plural.
- Robert and John Pease came from Great Baddow, Essex, England, to Salem, MA, in 1634. In 1644 Robert died, leaving a son (also called Robert) who was apprenticed as a weaver in Salem. By 1646 John Pease was living on Martha’s Vineyard.