Tutsell

Recorded in several forms including Tuxell, Tutsell, Ticksall, Tuxwell, Tucsell, and Ticsall, this very unusual surname is English. It is of locational origins either from Taxal, a village in the county of Cheshire, or from the parish and village of Tixall in Staffordshire. Alternatively it may derive from a now "lost" medieval village called either Tuxwell or Tuxhill, and thought to have been situated in the county of Somerset, because of the high incidence of surname recordings from that area. Taxal village is recorded as Tackishalch in the Hundrd Rolls of 1273, and as Tackesal in the Court Rolls of Chester for 1285. It was so called from the Olde English pre 7th Century personal name "Tata", with "halh", meaning a remote valley, whilst Tixall, is recorded as "Ticheshale" in the famous Domesday Book of 1086. It derives from the byname "Ticcen", meaning a child or young person, again with halh as above. The surname is recorded in the surviving early church registers and examples include: Judith Tuxwell and Edward Martin, who were married at Bridgewater, Somerset, on July 3rd 1597, and Thomas Tucsell, who was christened at Brege, in Cornwall on February 3rd 1708. 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. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as the Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop", often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.