HUXLEY FAMILIES RESEARCH

INDEX:


ORIGINS

The ancestral home is said to be in Cheshire, represented to-day by a farm in the Wirral, about eight miles from Chester, called Huxley Hall. From this centre Huxleys spread to the neighbouring villages, such as Overton and Eccleston, Clotton and Duddon, Tattenhall and Wettenhall; others to Chester and Brindley near Nantwich. The southward movement carries some to the Welsh border, others into Shropshire. The Wettenhall family established themselves in the fourth generation at Rushall, and held property in Handsworth and Walsall; the Brindley family sent a branch to Macclesfield, whose representative, Samuel, must have been on the town council when the Young Pretender rode through on his way to Derby, for he was mayor in 1746; while at the end of the sixteenth century, George, the disinherited heir of Brindley, became a merchant in London, and purchased Wyre Hall at Edmonton, where his descendants lived for four generations, his grandson being knighted by Charles II in 1663. {S16}.

COAT OF ARMS

The Huxley coat of arms is a shield of Ermine with a red diagonal stripe on which are 3 gold crescents. Above this shield should be the crest of a wolf's head.

The Family Moto: In Deo Omnia. Latin for "In God are all things"

PLACES CALLED HUXLEY:

Huxley is a village in Cheshire, England. Seven miles southeast of Chester.

Huxley is a city in Story County Iowa, USA

Huxley is a city in Shelby County Texas, USA

THE FAMILY NAME HUXLEY

Spelling variations include: Huxley (1271), Hucksley, Houxley, Huxeley (1260), Huxleigh (1385).

The name 'Huxley' is of Anglo-Saxon origin and is first found in Cheshire where they were seated from ancient times as Lords of the Manor of Huxley.

The original Huxleys were Vikings from Scandanavia that moved to Normandy on the invitation of the King of France. Following 1066 and all that they moved to England and settled in the north west.

Back then the name was Holdesieia and they were a medieval Cheshire family first recorded in the reign of Richard I (1189-1199). The surname Hodelseia came from that manor in the Waverton Parish of Cheshire, 8 miles south west of Chester in England. It was later corrupted to Huxley and its variations. The hamlet of Hodesleia became known as Huxley and the family spread in the late 18th century into neighbouring areas and across the boarder to Wales.

Towards the end of his life [George F64], however, my mother persuaded him to see what could be found out about Huxley Hall and the origin of the name. This proved to be from the manor of Huxley or Hodesleia, whereof one Swanus de Hockenhull was enfeoffed by the abbot and convent of St. Werburgh in the time of Richard I. Of the grandsons of this Swanus, the eldest kept the manor and name of Hockenhull (which is still extant in the Midlands); the younger ones took their name from the other fief. {S16}.

The name is believed to derive from the genitive case of the Olde English pre 7th Century personal nickname 'Hucc' (from 'Hux' meaning a taunt), plus 'leah' meaning a wood or clearing.

Other versions of the origin of Huxley seem to only differ in the meaning of 'Hux'. I have heard it is a derivative of the name 'Hugh' therefore meaning 'Hugh's Land'.

Locational surnames were usually acquired by a local landowner, or by the lord of the manor, and especially by those former inhabitants of a place who moved to another area and were therafter best identified by the name of their birthplace.

The surname from this source is first recorded in the latter half of the 13th Century.

One Thomas de Huxeley appears in the Subsidy Rolls of Staffordshire, dated 1332 and a William Huxley is recorded in the 1530 Fine Court Rolls of Essex.

The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert de Huxeley, which was dated 1260, witness in the "Assize Court Rolls of Cheshire", during the reign of King Henry III (1216-1272).

NAME INDEX:


HUXLEY FAMILY INDEX:


SOURCES:

*~*~*~* [S14] Family History Society of Cheshire. Crewe Group. VISITATION OF CHESHIRE. 1580. http://www.scfhs.org.uk/scfhs/visitations/BookVC1580/p131.htm