The Pearsall Family :1100 Years
The Pearsall Family :1100 Years
History Of The Pearsall Family
Old Norse and Icelandic literature was much concerned with a person's heritage and with family lineage. Long dark winters (and much mead) embroidered these stories. The links to Sagas, Vikings and Normans will take you to another world indeed. For students of archaeology and Norse and Celtic history, there is a hint at Celtic origins here if you read carefully.
The Viking progenitor of our family was Rognvald, cousin
of King Harald Fairhair of Norway and father of Rollo, First Duke of Normandy.
European Ancestors
About 1007 Mauger, great grandson of Rollo became
Count of Corbeil and Count of Montaigne and changed the lion figure's
posture on the coat of arms. According to a tradition of Corbeil, an ancestor
had slain a dragon. For a time, the dragon embellished our arms. In 1057,
William, Duke of Normandy dispossessed Werlac, son of Mauger and
Count of Corbeil and Montaigne and drove him from the country. In Italy,
Werlac adopted new arms, a cross Fleuriior cross with fleur de lis reminiscent
of lost Normandy. Ancestor Clarence refers to it as "The Cross of Suffering".
In 1080, Gilbert de Corbeil, grandson of Werlac, married Isabella
Lupus, daughter of Richard Avranches, a descendant of Hrollarf, son
of Rognvald and brother of Rollo. Hrollarf and his family retained the wolf's
head insignia and this was the insignia of the Lupus family. Any descendant
of this marriage had the right to "impale" or add as a quartering
the original wolf's head
as the symbol of the Lupus or Avranches family. Isabella's generation was
the last to be allowed to pass on the arms to descendants though the female
line.
Isabella and Gilbert's son Robert acquired the manor of Peshale
and the name "de Peshale" which later became Pearsall.
He married Ormunda de Lumley de Stafford, a princess of Bernicia,
Northumberland. Political considerations and cautions caused the family
to return to the arms of Werlac rather than advertise their extensive royal
connections. We may use more variety in
our American family arms including the "impalement" and "augmentation"
used when our family name began.
The families in England today are represented by descendants who call themselves
Pearsall, Parshall, Pexall, Pascall, Peshall and Swinnerton. Robert de
Peshall, grandson of Robert and Ormunda, was given the manor of Swinnerton
and took the name de Swinnerton and kept the family arms as designed
by ancestor Werlac. The de Peshales used a number of varieties from the
original.
At the time of Henry V, heraldry set the arms of families back to those
worn at the battle of Agincourt. Thus, arms could be inherited or subsequently
granted by the King by Royal Patent. They could not be purchased by the
nouveau riche. The Herald's Office had the official records. Our ancestor
Nicholas de Peshale fought at Agincourt.
In 1483, the college of arms or Heralds College was established by Richard
III. The presidency of it is hereditary in the family of Howard, Duke of
Norfolk.
The earliest visitation by the heralds to the family was in 1528 in Staffordshire
at which time the Peshall arms were approved. The right of descent is allowed.
Subsequent visits and recordings of information from the Master of Arms
are on file either in the British Museum or in the office of the College
of Heraldry (at least as of 1920).
The Family Mottoes
"Ce que ad viendra"
Different generations have used various mottoes:
Sir Adam de Peshale of Weston-under-Lizard: "Spes me in Deo"
Others used: "Fortes fortuna juvat".
Reverend John Peshall used: "Suum Cuique".
Richard Pearsall: "Sine crimine sine metu"
Robert Lucas de Pearsall: "Better death than shame".
John Peshall (who married Helena Harcourt): "Bien venu
ce que ad viendra".
Our branch has used the rather pedestrian: "Sine labora nihil".
Ancestor Clarence Pearsall writes on page 23 of volume one of The History
and Genealogy of the Pearsalls in England and America: "The truth would,
however, seem to be that there is no recognized family motto of the Peshale-Pearsall
family and one is at liberty both historically and of personal right to
use whatever motto strikes their own fancy."
The Family Surnames
Norway: Wolf
Normandy: Lupus
de Normandi (in service to the Duke) e.g. Rollo de Normandi
de Corbeil (on acquisition of that manor) e.g.Gilbert de Corbeil
England:
Fitz-Gilbert de Corbeil, who married a daughter of the Northmbrian royal becoming in turn a:
de Lumley
Peshale de Lumley
de Peshale (on acquisition of that manor)
The manor name Peshall may have come from the Anglo Saxon "peashealh" or "home of the Peacock" Peshale was a current name in 1066 and is probably Old Saxon. It is not listed in the Domesday Book. There is a sketchy mention in Pirehill Hundred by Walter Chetwynd.
Sir Hugh Persall was knighted at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1486 (One assumes by the winner) and was given the family manor of Horsely Hall. Three branches of the family fought at Bosworth Field, two for Lancaster and one for York.
The Ranton branch of the Peshalls changed the spelling to Pearsall sometime after Bosworth Field. Other variations came and went (or survived to some extent to this day), but those of our line kept Pearsall. The popularity of this spelling was spread by visits of the successful wool merchants Asa and Edmund Pearsall and can be found in parish records in Kidderminster in the Church of St. Mary's. It began to be used in this spelling in about 1612. Edmund Pearsall was an ancestor of the American branch of our family. Thomas Pearsall settled in Chesapeake country of Virginia and Maryland. A branch of the family changed to Piersall inNew York during the Revolutionary War.
American variations of the name: Pearsall, Parcell, Parsels, Parsill, Pearcall,Pearceall, Pearsel, Pearsell, Persel, Pershall, Parshall, Perzel, Piercall, Pierceall, Piersall, Purcall, Pursell, Purcel, Purcell, Purkell, Pursel, Persle, Pursell, Pussal, Pussel, Pearsol, Pearsoll, Piersol, Peirsol, Parcelle, Parsells, Parcells, Parcoll, Parsoll, Parsolls, Parsil, Persil, Parsil, Persils, Perceaull, Pearceaull, Pertil, Peartil and many other forms of the same names.
Edmund Pearsall
According to Clarence Pearsall,our family descends from Edmund Pearsall, Merchant of the Staple (wool). Ancestor Clarence Pearsall quotes from "A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom" by Mark Anthony, M.A.F.S.A. gives: - Pearsall, an estate in co. Stafford, now written Pearshall or Pershall. The family are of Norman origin, having been founded at the place referred to by Robert, a follower of Robert of Stafford, early in the reign of the Conqueror. He was son of Gilbert, son of a Count of Corbeil in Normandy.
Members of the newly formed Pearsalls-l listserve are investigating an origin for Henry Pearsall, the progenitor of my own family's branch to be in Warwickshire rather than in Staffordshire. This is an ongoing investigation with little in the way of results so far.For a copy of the information I have collected, see the following:
Heraldic Designs from Pearsall Sources
Wolf's Head, Rognvald's Family (adapted from
scan from Pearsalls books)
Wolf's Head Canton: designed by Rosalie
V. Grafe
Updated 1/5/2002
e-mail: grafe@teleport.com