Mursell Family From 1690

‘Mursell’ is one of one hundred most well known surnames on the Isle of Wight. In Newport I.O.W. council offices there is a cabinet containing one hundred drawers with each drawer containing information on cards on each of the one hundred surnames.

Fairly recently an assistant curator working at the offices chose one of the names to create a pedigree for her university degree. Fortunately she chose the ‘Mursell’ surname. I have had a ‘Mursell’ family tree produced (which can be viewed as a PDF file, Part 1 and Part 2) from the assistant curator’s papers. This family tree commences with Nicholas Mursell 1690 – 1769.

Information can also be viewed under ‘living history’ see in site: www.woottonbridgeiow.org.uk. Barry Mursell tells me that he put together the information on this site. This information has since been updated as shown and detailed in this document, (PDF format), however be aware that this is a 596 page file.

As far as I know the ‘Mursell’ name is the only documented surname pedigree of people living on the I.O.W. I also show in the following web page an abridged ‘Direct Line from Nicholas Mursell through to James Andrew etc.

It would be interesting to know the origins of Nicholas Mursell (we think that he was a soldier) and if anyone has further information then I should be pleased to receive this.

There are many surname search sites on the web and one of these is surname database: ‘last name origins’ found on www.surnamedb.com. This states (and they may be wrong!) that the surname ‘Mursell’ is one of many forms of the French surname ‘Marshall’ or its earlier spelling from the German surname ‘Mareschal’ (a military officer of high rank – a marshal - or an horse servant!) found in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the northern part of East Germany. The first recording in England of the name ‘Mursell’ is from 1086 in Wiltshire found in the doomsday book, so one assumption is that the Mursells arrived in England in 1066 with William the Conqueror.

Another site being gbnames.publicprofiler.org/ which shows the location of the Mursell’s in the UK and various countries.

My grandfather, Albert Mursell, moved to the mainland from the IOW when he was a teenager to work in the wooden boat building industry. My father, John (Jack) Mursell also worked in the wooden boat building industry and then, after the 2nd WW started his own house building company. I worked for most of my life in the laminated timber structures industry firstly as manager of Gabriel Wade Ltd Timber Engineering Division and then directly with Scandinavian and German companies - the last 14 years running my own company, 'Axis Timber Ltd', specialising in laminated timber structures. So wood has been an important part of our family life.

On 29-04-2012 Barry sent me the following email which I thought worth publishing.

‘I am in touch with distant cousins of ours in Canada, USA, Australia & New Zealand. Have also contacted Mursells in Chile & Germany and also Murcells in Newfoundland. The Chileans have no idea about their origins. The Newfies were always told that they originate from the UK but so far I cannot link them in. In Newfoundland there is a Mursell/Murcell Cove & there was a Mursell Lake in Canada but it was renamed. There was a Mursell Street in Leicester but it got re-developed. Mursell Estate in London – not exactly top notch. Mursell conference room in a hotel in Manchester. Mursell Way in Hound/Hamble near Bursledon.

Having started my research knowing next to nothing about Mursells & thinking there was nothing really special about them I got many surprises – more than 10 published authors, 1st president of the Baptist Union, Bishop of Stafford (now retired), Australian tennis champion (they now compete for the Mursell shield), college named after one in the USA, well respected boat designer, knighthood & appointed Vice Lord-Lieutenant of West Sussex, plus the usual group of vagabonds & rogues.’

In the above paragraph Brian states that regarding the Newfies he has not been able to link them in. I have however been able to do this. George and William Mursell travelled from England to Newfoundland. Only William seems to have arrived (in those days ships foundered and many soles were saved by local fishing boats) It was William who named Mursell Cove. George and William can be found on Part 1 of the family tree descending from Nicholas and Martha (Martha being his third wife). My direct family also descend from Nicholas and Martha.