Tixall

This very unusual surname is believed to be of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name either from Taxal, a village in Cheshire, or from the parish and village of Tixall in Staffordshire. Alternatively, Tuxill may derive from a now "lost" place called Tuxwell or Tuxhill thought to have been situated in Somerset or some other south western English county because of the high incidence of surname recordings from that area. Taxal, recorded as "Tackishalch" in 1273, and as "Tackesal" in the 1285 Court Rolls of Chester, was so called from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name "Tatuc", a derivative of "Tata", with "halh", secret place, remote valley, and Tixall, appearing as "Ticheshale" in the Domesday Book of 1086, has as its initial element the Olde English byname "Ticcen", "Kid", with "halh" (as above). The name is recorded in English Church Registers under the variant spellings: Ticksall, Tuxwell, Tuxell, Tucsell and Tixall. On July 3rd 1597, Judith Tuxwell and Edward Martin were married at Bridgewater, Somerset, and on February 3rd 1708, Thomas Tucsell was christened at Brege, Cornwall. The marriage of Mary Tuxell to John Powell took place at Stockland, Bristol, Somerset, on May 21st 1716, and on February 2nd 1750, John Tuxsell was christened at Christchurch, Wellington, Shropshire. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of George Ticksall, which was dated December 1st 1588, recorded at Stowe, Staffordshire, 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.