Recorded in many forms including Pattershall, Pateshall, Patteshall, Patsall, Patshall, Patesal, Patesel, Pattisall, Pattisell, Pettisall, Pitsall, Pudsall, and no doubt others, this is an English surname. It is locational from either a place called Pattishall in the county of Northamptonshire, or Patshull in the county of Staffordshire. Pattishall village is first recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 as Pascelle, and according to the Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names it means Peatta's Hill. Peatta seems to have been a popular Olde English tribal name of the pre 7th century, although its meaning is uncertain. Patshull is also first recorded in Domesday Book as Paettel's Hill, and the simiularity of spelling would indicate the same origin. In Olde English the word 'paep' pronounced and meaning path, is known to have been the prefix to many place names including Pateley in Yorkshire, Patmore in Hertfordshire, and Patton in Westmorland, so this may also be an origin of this surname i.e. 'The hill path'. The surname in its various spellings is well recorded in the city of London from Elizabethan times. Early examples of the recordings include Frances Pattisall, a christening witnerss at St Margarets Westminstere on July 18th 1621, Joseph Patshall at St. Steven Walbrook, on July 5th 1702, Ruth Patisel who married William Williams at St Giles Cripplegate, on October 5th 1719, and Catherine Patershall who married Thomas Glover at St Martins in the Field, Westminster, on September 26th 1785.