Gyngell

This most interesting and unusual surname, found widespread in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, is probably of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from one of the estimated seven to ten thousand villages and hamlets that have disappeared in Britain. The placename itself may mean "the hill or valley of the people of Gaeging", from the personal name derived from the Olde English pre 7th Century "gaegan", to turn aside, and the Olde English "hyll", a hill, or the Olde English "dael", valley. The prime cause of these "disappearances" was the enforced "clearing" and dispersal of the former inhabitants to make way for sheep pastures at the height of the wool trade in the 15th Century. Natural causes such as the Black Death of 1348 also contributed to the lost village phenomenon. John Gingell married Margit Fylkes on January 15th 1570, at St. Michael's, Kington, Wiltshire, and William Gyngell married Edyth Holway, here also, on July 7th 1576. Addam Gindghill married Ayles Wynston on November 28th 1596 at St. George's, Bristol, while the marriage of Thomas Gyngyll and Katherine Keepe took place on July 14th 1600, at St. Mary Magdalene's, Bermondsey, London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Michael de Gingedale, which was dated 1273, in the "Hundred Rolls of Wiltshire", during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.