Worrall

This long-established surname, recorded in the spellings of Worral, Worrall, Worrell, Worrill, Whorall, Wyrall and Wyrill, is of English origin. It is a locational name either from the district of Wirral in Cheshire, or from the village of Worrall near Sheffield in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The former place, recorded variously as "Wirhealum" and "Wirheale" in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle dated 894, and as "Wirhale", circa 1100, in the Chartulary of the Abbey of St. Werburgh, Chester, is so called from the Olde English pre 7th Century "wir", meaning a bog, and "halh", meaning a corner or "a piece of flat alluvial land by the side of a river", which seems appropriate. The Yorkshire village is recorded as "Wihale" in the Domesday Book of 1086 for Yorkshire, and as "Wirhal" in the 1218 Feet of Fines for the county.Locational surnames, such as this, were originally given to local landowners, and to the lord of the manor, and especially as a means of identification to those who left their birthplace to settle elsewhere. In the early recordings Richard de Wyrall appears in the 1351 charters of Sheffield, whilst in 1380 Alan de Worrell is recorded in Nottingham. William Worrall was noted in "Sheffield Manorial Records" in 1517, and in 1590, Thomasin Worrall, of Whiston, a widow, was entered in the Wills Records held at Chester. The Coat of Arms granted to the nameholders has the blazon of a gold field, charged with two lions passant guardant in black, on a blue chief, three covered cups, all gold. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Roger de Wyrhal, which was dated 1219, witness in the "Assize Court Rolls of Yorkshire", during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. 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.