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.