Gornall One-Name Study

Gornall
One-Name Study

Topics

About the Gornall One-Name Study
Variants
Origin of the surname
Historical occurrences
Frequency of the name
Distribution of the name
Data
DNA project
Contact Details

About the Gornall One-Name Study

The research that is being done within The GORNALL / GORNELL ONE NAME STUDY is primarily there to (a) establish when / where the first GORNALL families originated, (b) to determine if indeed the current possible theory that only ONE family used the name in the beginning, and therefore making it possible that ALL GORNALLS (or variants of the name) are related. and (c) to follow family tree lines which in turn puts other Gornall family members in touch with those who are related to them.

Variants

GORNALL GORNELL GURNELL GURNALL GORNER GARNER

The name GORNALL was spelled in an endless variety of ways until about the year 1700; Prior to that time GURNALL appears to be the most common spelling. Now, in the 21st Century, the spelling is usually GORNALL or GORNELL.

Origin of the surname

Hereditary surnames came into use in England earlier than anywhere else, that is from 1250 onwards, and were often descriptive of a person's parentage, appearance, occupation, place of residence or land holding and official status. Frequently the meaning is fairly obvious but sometimes it is a word that has gone out of use or is actually in a foreign or forgotten language and is not easily recognizable.

The name GORNALL or GORNELL was originally so uncommon as to have no mention or explanation in lists of surnames up to modern times. It's origin could be the 'middle English' word QUEORN or CWEORNHALGH meaning 'the mill or the granary', and is therefore derived from the vernacular or commonly spoken language which persisted in a remote and isolated area like the Amounderness District of Lancashire well into the 15th Century.

It could possibly mean that it descended from one particular ancestor and was, like many names, descriptive of an occupation. (i.e. John o'th' Girnall), or referring to John who worked in the Mill or the Granary. In the process of the One Name Study and the DNA project, it will hopefully be determined if there was more than one original family with the GORNALL (or variant) surname.

Now in 2007 as we have continued our research into the early Gornalls and their locations it would seem that there is a possibility in the beginning that the name may have come from one area and possibly one family. Time will tell if this is to be the case. It could indeed have been one family of lay workers from a monastery area who started out with this name. Many of the family trees that are being researched now are linking up together as one tree which originated in the area of Garstang and Cockerham in the 1500's, and it appears those people came from further north.

The name appears to be entirely restricted to this isolated part of Lancashire, north of the River Ribble, until roughly 1600. At that time the chief landowners and employers of agricultural labour, the the Abbeys of Furness and Cockersand, who had their granaries at Hawkshead and Garstang respectively, were dispossessed of their lands and buildings, and freer movement of labourers who needed to look for work was possible. Before that, at Furness, for instance, the 'regime of Citeaux' within a hundred years of it's foundation, was employing 200 lay brothers working on the farms. These agricultural labourers were recruited from the people of mixed English and Viking descent living in these lakeland valleys. (John, Robert, Thomas and Matthew Gornall - Furness Coucher Book 1537). Cartmel Priory owned farms (John Gornall, Spooner's Close, Burblethwaite, Cartmel Fell, a tenant of Cartmel Priory 1508) while Cockersand Abbey founded by Hugh the Hermit in 1184 and dissolved in 1539 owned extensive lands in Garstang and Claughton.

Historical occurrences

It was in 1642, as they began to be more mobile in search of work, that a person of the name Gornall moved from Claughton to Preston, a distance of a mere ten miles, and this Hugh Gornall having employment there, as an Alehouse Keeper or an Innkeeper, was entered amongst the in-burgesses of the town in the PRESTON GUILD MERCHANT that year. He was the first BURGESS by the name of GORNALL, and the records show that to date 76 of his male descendants claimed their birthright of entry in the Guild from then on every twenty years at the PRESTON GUILD to this present day. This practice continued long after it was actually necessary in order to trade freely in the town of Preston, and boys were entered by their freeman parents at the first GUILD after their birth to safeguard their future livelihood. Now, just a traditional custom, it (the PRESTON GUILD) provides a useful historical and genealogical record. It is worthwhile to note that the PRESTON GUILD MERCHANT IS STILL HELD EVERY TWENTY YEARS. THE NEXT ONE HAPPENS IN 2012.

Many of the Gornalls who were Preston Guild Members moved further away to do business as the competition became too much for them in Preston. This accelerated by the middle of the 18th Century, as Preston became a large prosperous city of Business and Fashion, and the Guild began to lose it's power. No longer was a Burgess in the Guild able to stop others from coming into Preston to do business without paying a tax on the goods they brought in, and also by first becoming accepted by the council and joining the Guild. After the 1770's the Guild was no longer able to fine anyone doing in business in Preston without being a Guild Member.

Frequency of the name

On the 1841 Census of England and Wales there were about 480 individuals with the surname of GORNALL / GORNELL or a variant of it like GURNELL, or GURNALL, or even GARNALL. More than 98% of those families lived in Lancashire, England. The 1851 Census shows about 560. Using the 1841 Census as a guideline, (although it is known that there are missing records not transcribed in that census), it could be concluded that in 1800 there were approximately 200 - 250 individuals using the surname of Gornall / Gornell or a variant of that spelling.

Distribution of the name

Up to the end of the nineteenth century, the majority of those who went by the name of GORNALL / GORNELL remained in Lancashire or Yorkshire. However, in earllier years, and having reference to some who left England priot to the middle of the eighteenth century, we know that some of the Lancashire soldiers who fought for King George in the Revolutionary War with the United States remained behind and lived in America after the war was over in the early 1780's. Before that event, we also know that a Quaker by the name of John Gurnell who was born in 1611 in Great Eccleston, Lancashire went to America in about 1630 and became a founding member of Dorchester, Massachusetts. Another individual, Charles Gornall, became a victim of the Justice System in London in 1833 and was sent off to Australia as a convict at the age of 12. He remained in Australia and established a good living for himself and his descendants.

Data

References and Dates:-

1127 Foundation of Furness Abbey,

1179 Incorporation of the Town of Preston, Lancs by Henry II

1184 Foundation of Cockersand Abbey by Hugh Garth, known as 'Hugh the Hermit'

1287 Fylde Forest Eyres

1328 First Preston Guild

1350 John Gornall of Arkholme, Duchy. Lancashire appears on a document in the Assizes in the Parish of Melling. Document retained at The National Archives, Kew.

1377 - 1381 - Poll-Tax Record

1397 - First Recorded Roll of Preston Guild. (Refer Lancashire Record Office in Preston).

1400 - Furness Abbey employed 200 lay brothers working on the farms, recruited from the people of mixed England and Viking descent, who lived in the lakeland valleys.

1451-1461 Cockersand Abbey Tenant Rentals. Cockersand Abbey owned extensive lands in Garstang and Claughton.

1508 - John Gornall a tenant of Cartmel Priory , Lived at Spooners Close, Burblethwaite Cartmell Fell. He was a tenant of Cartmel Priory in 1508.

1508-1509 - Vale Royal Rentals of Kirkham

1524-1525 - Subsidy Returns

1537 - John, Robert, Thomas and Matthew Gornall are recorded in the Furness Coucher Book (which contained all the properties, farms and tenants owned by the Monastery)

1537 - Dissolution of Furness Abbey

1568-1704 - Hawkshead Parish Register.

1642 - Hugh Gornall of Preston appears in the Protestant Attestation Rolls of 1642 and has taken the Oath required of him. In the list of names of those in Preston who took the oath, he appears as the only one one by the name of Gornall. This leaves us to believe he was the first person by the name of Gornall to move to Preston and live and do business there.

1643 - Thomas Gornall married to Jenet Waller - Cartmel

1662-1674 - Hearth Tax Returns

DNA project

THE GORNALL / GORNELL SURNAME PROJECT is now underway and details about it can be found at Family Tree DNA's website www.familytreedna.com

A One Name Study and a DNA study complement each other, and enhance the chances of finding more individuals who were previously unknown to each other but who are related.

All MALE individuals with the surname GORNALL or GORNELL or a variant of that spelling are encouraged to request a kit from Family Tree Dna, and in so doing they will help to enhance the opportunities that will arise in assisting more individuals to find links and family relationships to others with the same name.

Contact details

For further information, contact:

Mrs Catherine Proctor
908 Claymore Road,
Qualicum Beach,
British Columbia
V9K 2T6
Canada
E-mail:

This page last updated 25 February 2008.