Hempsall One-Name Study

Hempsall
One-Name Study

Topics

About the Hempsall One-Name Study
Variants
Origin of the surname
Historical occurrences
Frequency of the name
Distribution of the name
Data
Links
Contact Details

About the Hempsall One-Name Study

This One Name Study arose out of my interest derived from a HEMPSALL mother .

Initially, I confined myself to HEMPSALL, but as the research progressed it became clear that the other spellings were merely variants , probably all derived from a common ancestor . The data on HEMPSALL, the main variant, is fairly complete, but much work remains to be done on the other variants .

Conventional 'paper chase' research has enabled all, or nearly all, living HEMPSALLS, HEMPSHALLS, HEMSHALLS , HEMPSELLS, HEMSOLLS and HEMPSHELLS to be derived from just one couple who married in Nottinghamshire in 1632 and lived in the village of East Markham, where one descendant still lives.

In addition, some families now living mainly in Sheffield, who now spell their name EMSELL actually descend from a Joseph HEMPSELL, whose position on the main HEM(P)S(H)A/ELL TREE is clear. This family had their farmhouse swept away by the Sheffield flood of 1864; perhaps this traumatic event , which destroyed their written records , plus the fact that the 'H' was dropped in the local dialect, led to confusion with the name EMSELL , which already existed in Yorkshire, but from a quite distinct derivation .

EMSELL, however , is not officially included in this ONS, apart from BMDs of the family referred to above.

As regards the other variants -HEMSELL and HEMSIL(L) , the relationship is less clear, and might well repay an investigation using Y-chromasome DNA , if sufficient participants and finance become available .

Variants

The HEMPSALL One name Study includes the following variants:

HEMPSHALL,HEMPSHELL,HEMPSELL, HEMSHALL, HEMSOLL,HEMSELL,HEMSIL(L),HEMSALL, .

Origin of the surname

The most likely origin of HEMPSALL and its variants is a place name 'Hempshill', a small settlement now absorbed as a north-western suburb of Nottingham city. It is recorded in the Domesday survey of 1086 as Hamessel and in the following centuries under a bewildering variety of spellings:

Hemdeshyll (1200), Hindishull (1239), Homeshull (1275), Hemsull (1376), Hemsell (1478), Hamsall (1524), Hempsell (1611), as well as Hempsall.

Ekwall, in his “Concise Oxford Dictionary of English place-names” derives the place name from “Hemede’s Hill”, from an Anglo-Saxon personal name. In the middle ages, it was the site of a large estate, or manor.

George Redmond, in his otherwise excellent book on the surnames of the West Riding of Yorkshire, does mention HEMPSALL, but dismisses it as a variant of EMSALL and derives it from ELMSALL in the West Riding, by 'hypercorrection' i.e. self-conscioius insertion of 'H' by speakers who habitually dropped their aitches in speech. The distribution of earliest records lends no support to this theory,as EMSALL and HEMPSALL do not co-occur in the same areas. However , there have been a few instances of confusion over the years, including the Sheffield family called EMSELL referred to above , who can be shown to derive from a family formerly HEMPSALL.

The earliest record of the name HEMPSALL or similar used possibly as a hereditary surname is to an 'Inquisition post mortem ' of 1345 at Nottingham, in which “Richard, son of Ralph, of Hempsull” was a witness. This instance shows hesitation between the use of a filial name (son of Ralph) and a locative name (Of Hempsull) .Significantly, in another Inquisition at Nottingham in 1367, 'William de Hemsele'

was a signatory, using the locative name alone .

Only one fifteenth century record has so far come to light : in 1490, a cleric in Southwell, Nottinghamshire bequeathed his 'second best hat' to 'Margaret, wife of William Hempsell'.

The earliest parish records are in North Lincolnshire in the 1540s, and the earliest extant will , dating from 1555, is that of Thomas Hempsall of Goltho, a village , now deserted, twelve miles east of Lincoln.

About the same time, references appear in Nottinghamshire .

Later, the name was often rendered by scribes as HEM(P)SWELL in Lincolnshire, presumably by mistaken identification with the village of Hemswell, fourteen miles north of Lincoln; and also in Nottinghamshire as HEMPSEED.

Confusingly, the online searchable International Genealogical Index (I.G.I) lumps together the unrelated HEMPSALL and EMPSALL as if they were genuine variants, yet requires separate searches under HEMPSHALL, HEMSHALL, and HEMSWELL and HEMPSEED, even though there are instances of members of the same family being recorded under three or more of these variants in the same parish register .

Historical occurrences

No aristocratic personages or dramatic events have so far been discovered associated with HEMPSALLs, who seem in general to have been an unremarkable cross-section of East Midland society -yeomen, labourers and artisans.

Frequency of the name

The most recent UK electoral roll figures (2003) are:

HEMPSALL 408 HEMPSHALL 177 HEMSELL 38 HEMPSELL 29 HEMSIL 29 HEMSHALL 26 HEMPSHELL 19 HEMSILL 15 HEMSALL 8 HEMSOLL 4

Outside Britain, the equivalent figures for the main variant , HEMPSALL are : Australia about 70, Canada and USA about 15 each . This translates into a world total for HEMPSALL of about 700 persons including children, and perhaps 1100 with the inclusion of the other variants listed above.

Distribution of the name

Within the UK, HEMPSALLS are still concentrated in their original haunts of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire , with a more recent overspill into South Yorkshire and the Manchester area , with a sprinkling of families and individuals on the South Coast, Isle of Man and Furness district of Lancashire .

In Australia , the main cluster of HEMPSALLS is in Queensland , descended from two brothers who arrived there from Lincoln in 1886.

Canadian HEMPSALLS at present live in British Columbia , Ontario and Newfoundland, deriving from two individuals who migrated in the early part of the twentieth century.

In the USA, HEMPSALLS are clustered mainly in Michigan, derived from a couple who settled there in 1912.

Data

For HEMPSALL, HEMPSHALL, HEMPSELL, HEMPSHELL , HEMSOLL AND HEMSHALL, my ONS lists births marriages and deaths for the UK 1837-2004 (nearly complete) ; wills for Nottinghamshire , Lincolnshire , the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, and Borthwick Institute to 1854; UK wills 1854-2005 (index only) ; all International Genealogical Index and National Burial Index references; and a large number of other parish records. Also , a number of records from Australia, Canada and the USA

Nearly all living HEMPSALLs, HEMPSHALLs, HEMPSELLs, HEMPSHELLs, HEMSHALLs and HEMSOLLs have been linked into a single descendant TREE , enabling any enquirer with one of these names to be placed within the main TREE, provided they know their grandparentage.

Links

A book summarising the findings of this One Name Study : 'Hempsall , the history of an English Name ' has recently been published and is available for purchase. It lists the ancestry of most present-day bearers of HEMPSALL (and its variants) at least as far down as the early 20th century . Details and a brochure are available on application from the email address or postal address on this page.

Contact details

For further information, contact:

Mr Steve Tanner
Beili-glas,
Rhydargaeau,
Carmarthen
SA32 7HY
UNITED KINGDOM
E-mail:

This page last updated 25 February 2008.