Surname Origins, no. 1: Brazendale

The surname Brazendale is ignored by all the relevant dictionaries apart from one, ‘The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland’ (P. Hanks, R. Coates & P. McClure, 2016), in which it is explained as a “locative name from a lost or unidentified place”. Presumably a locative origin is posited because the final syllable looks like the word dale ‘valley’, a common element in English place-names. The distribution of the 213 bearers of the surname at the time of the 1881 Census is described as “mainly Lancashire and Cheshire”, and two early bearers are cited: Martha Brazendale, 1769 in Daresbury (Cheshire), and James Brazendale, 1792 in Warrington (Lancashire). Here are maps showing the 1881 distribution, both at county level and poor-law union level.

(Maps created using Steve Archer’s indispensable 19th Century Surname Atlas - every home should have one!)

For “early” bearers, 1769 and 1792 are very late dates. We expect to find English surnames recorded from medieval times, not suddenly appearing out of thin air in the 18th century. And the fact that no place called Brazendale can be identified, either on modern maps or in historical documents, suggests that the surname is a variant of something else… perhaps still locative but, if so, in disguise.

Well, delving straight into a selection of medieval sources, here is a chronological list of some individuals whom I take to be bearers of this surname in various guises, from the 13th through to the 18th century:

Simon de Brusenhulle, knight, 1299 in Plea Rolls (Staffordshire)

Roger de Brusenhull, clerk, 1340 in Feet of Fines (Haughton, Staffordshire)

Friar Edmund de Brusenehull, 1360 in Second Register of Robert de Stretton (Shropshire)

Alicia de Bresenhul, 1381 in Poll Tax (Childs Ercall, Shropshire)

Thomas Bresonhull’, 1381 in Poll Tax (Church Eaton, Staffordshire)

[...] Bresynhull’, 1381 in Poll Tax (Cuttlestone hundred, Staffordshire)

Ralph Brusenhulle, 1441 in Plea Rolls (Penkridge, Staffordshire)

John Brasenell, 1525 in Subsidy Rolls (Chetwynd and Edgmond, Shropshire)

Thomas Brasenell, 1583 in TNA PROB 11 (Chetwynd, Shropshire)

Richard Brasenell, 1666, Thomas Brazenhill, 1789 in Parish Registers (Childs Ercall, Shropshire)

Margaret Brasnell, 1695 in Parish Registers (Hodnet, Shropshire)

John Brasnell, 1702, Margaret Brazenell, 1706 in Parish Registers (Dudley, Worcestershire)

Sarah Brazenell, 1738 in Parish Registers (Stoke upon Tern, Shropshire)

Elizabeth Brazenall, 1767 in Parish Registers (Hinstock, Shropshire)

The first point to note is that the preposition de ‘of’, found consistently in the earliest examples but disappearing by the late 14th century, tells us that Brusenhulle is a place-name. But before we try to pin down Brusenhulle, or demonstrate its relevance to Brazendale, let’s just confirm the West Midlands distribution in 1881 of the rare surnames Brasenell (13 bearers), Brasnell (29 bearers), Brazenall (45 bearers), and Brazenell (36 bearers).

(The distributions of Brasenall, Brazenhall, Braznall, and Braznell are very similar, again with very few bearers.)

And while we’re at it, let’s also note the strikingly similar West Midlands distributions in 1881 of Brazener (10 bearers), Brazenor (20 bearers, some of them in Brighton and Wandsworth), and Brazner (12 bearers). Circumstantial evidence indicates that these are variants of the Brasenall type, and that the shift from final -l to final -r took place in the parish of Worthen, in the west of Shropshire, then migrated eastwards.

Margareta Brasnell, 1561, Richard Brasnell, 1615, Barnaby Brasner, 1621 in Parish Registers (Worthen, Shropshire)

Randolph Brasenor, 1690 in Parish Registers (Pontesbury, Shropshire)

Mary Brazenor, 1722 in Parish Registers (Church Pulverbatch, Shropshire)

Samuel Brazenor, 1756, Samuel Brazener, 1777 in Parish Registers (Walsall, Staffordshire)

This development from the Brasenall type to the Brazenor type, datable and locatable to c.1600 in Worthen, has been demonstrated independently (with genealogical rather than merely circumstantial evidence) by Aubrey Cox here, though Cox’s etymological proposal of ‘brazier’ clearly won’t do.

Anyway, time to return to the medieval evidence. There seem to be two plausible contenders for the source of the surname which we find as de Brusenhulle in those early records. The less compelling is Bristnall in Warley Wigorn (Worcestershire), which is recorded as Brussenhulle in the 13th century (see A. Mawer, F. M. Stenton & F. T. S. Houghton, ‘The Place-Names of Worcestershire’ (1927), p. 303). More attractive is Brazenhill in Haughton (Staffordshire), which is Brussenhull in 1238 (see J. P. Oakden, ‘The Place-Names of Staffordshire: Part 1’ (1984), p. 165).

Brazenhill (NGR SJ 8621) sits neatly among the locations in which the medieval bearers of the surname are found (Chetwynd, Childs Ercall, Church Eaton, and Penkridge), whereas Bristnall (Bristnall Fields NGR SO 9987 and Bristnall Hall NGR SP 0087) lies a good distance to the south of this cluster. Most tellingly, our Roger de Brusenhull in 1340 is recorded as holding land within the manor of Haughton.

Here is a map which shows the relevant area and, I think, helps to make the case for Brazenhill in Haughton. (I’ve marked Worthen simply for its interest in being the place where the variant Brazenor emerged.) Haughton and Warley Wigorn mark the two possible sites from which the surname could first have derived in the 13th century, and the other points are where all of our locatable early bearers from the 14th to the mid 16th century are to be found.

(Map created using Steve Archer’s GenMap UK - what would I do without him?)

The etymology of both place-names, Brazenhill and Bristnall, is perhaps Old English borsten hyll ‘burst hill’, whatever that might mean. That’s a topic for discussion another day. The hyll ‘hill’ component at least is beyond dispute.

As for the surname Brazendale, with its slightly more northern distribution than Brasenall, there is fractionally earlier evidence for the surname in both Cheshire and Lancashire than that given in ‘The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names’:

Thomas Brasendale, 1732 in Parish Registers (Lymm, Cheshire)

George Brasindale, 1789 in Parish Registers (Manchester, Lancashire)

There’s no problem accounting for -ndl- emerging from -nl- as the name Brasenall migrated and became Brazendale. Compare, for instance, Modern English spindle from Old English spinel (or -ndr- from -nr- in Modern English thunder from Middle English thunre). It’s the same process that gives us -mbl- from -ml-, as in Modern English bramble from Old English bræmel (or -mbr- from -mr- in Spanish hombre from Late Latin homre), whereby an intrusive consonant appears within a consonant cluster. The intrusive (or epenthetic) consonant is predictable, because it will be homorganic, i.e. it shares the place of articulation with the preceding consonant, thus bilabial b after bilabial m and alveolar d after alveolar n.

So there you go. I’m confident the surname Brasenall derives from Brazenhill in Haughton parish (Staffordshire), and that it spawned two distinct variants: Brazenor in Shropshire in the early 17th century, and Brazendale in Cheshire in the 18th. Only Brazendale, with by far the most bearers both in 1881 and today, has made it into any dictionary of surnames. And yes, it is a locative name, but not (as tacitly implied) through any connection with the word dale. In fact it’s a well-disguised hill.