Guild of One-Name Studies
One-name studies, Genealogy
Study: Wigzell
Variants: Wigsall, Wigsell, Wygesell, Wygsell
Category: 3 - A study where research using core genealogical datasets and transcriptions is well under way on a global basis.
Guild hosted website: wigzell.one-name.net
Contact: Mr Ray Wigzell
The Wigzell One-Name study started more or less by accident over 30 years ago. I started out with the intention of researching just my own ancestry, but found it was fairly easy to record every reference to 'Wigzell' as I searched. It also made practical sense as information I needed later had already been noted.
The origin of the Wigzell/Wigsell surname, according to the earliest published works on surname origins, (upon which all more recent publications seem to be based), states that:
'the name means 'belonging to Wigsell or Wigsale'.
The only place of that name is in Sussex, within the parish of Salehurst, now recorded as 'Wigsell'. The location originally came into being from its use as a forest grazing area, used by herdsmen, for the fattening of their swine, and or sheep. The Anglo Saxon word 'gisella' means 'herdsmens huts', forming the second syllable. The first syllable most likely a patronymic or a corruption of a name. Hence Wigs-gesella, some of the very earliest references to the name are Wiggesel, Wiggesell, Wiggeshulle, Wiggeselle, Wikeshulle, Wygeselle, Wigershel.
The earliest recording of the name was William de Wikeshulle who held one of the fifty-six Knights' fees in the Rape of Hastings, listed in the Red Book of the Exchequer 1166.
There is no mention of 'Wigsell' in the Domesday Book
From the index of the UK 1881 census produced by The Church of Latter Day Saints, there were 130 Wigzells, and from the index of the 1901 census, at The National Archives, the number was 170.
For a more recent count the Office of National Statistics database of names gives a count in September 2002 of 231, giving it the the ranking of 19,436.
Entries for births, marriages, and deaths, from the General Register Offices for England & Wales (since 1837) and Scotland (since 1855) have been recorded. Some of this data can be searched on the Guild web site