Strugnell

This unusual and interesting surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name from some minor, unrecorded, or now "lost" place believed to have been in Wiltshire or Hampshire because of the high incidence of early surname recordings from these counties. The prime cause of village "disappearances" was the enforced "clearing" and dispersal of the former inhabitants to make way for sheep pastures at the height of the wool trade from the 15th Century onwards, along with natural causes such as the Black Death of 1348, in which an eighth of the population perished. The component elements of the placename are believed to be an Olde English pre 7th Century personal byname "Stracun", related to the Old French "Stracur, Strakur", a kind of hound, with the Olde English "hyll", hill. The sound represented by the Olde English "y" became "e" in South East England, and this latter element appears variously in placenames as "-ull, -ill" and "-ell". On October 22nd 1573, Henrie Strognell and Grace Sheer were married at Fareham, Hampshire, and on November 23rd 1579, Henrye Strugnell married Margaret Ward at Salisbury, Wiltshire. The name is also well recorded in 17th Century Church Registers of Surrey and Sussex. Entries include the marriage of Richard Strugnell to Anne Smither at Banstead, Surrey, on June 12th 1669. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Elisabeth Strugnell, which was dated October 24th 1564, marriage to Richard Rose, at Whiteparish, Wiltshire, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, known as "Good Queen Bess", 1558 - 1603. 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.