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“The Geneal Geologist” |
CreativeGraces.net - Introduction to The
Norman PINWILL Memorial Archive – Original research was bequeathed to me by my
distant POPPLEWELL cousin Norman PINWILL who died in December 1999. Norman
was, for many years, the One-Name Study Co-ordinator for the POPPLEWELL
family name in the UK. He contacted many POPPLEWELLs around the world the
“old-fashioned way”, acquiring much information in the process, and did some
independent research himself. The full transcription and digitisation of
Norman's paper data as inherited was completed in March 2001. This
information can now be found on Ancestry.com and considerably expanded to
include all available worldwide records. During this process, individual
family trees created by Norman have been corrected and extended, hence the
original data is no longer available. Contact me to discuss any aspect of
POPPLEWELL research, either through this website, Ancestry (“POPPLEWELL One-Name Reference Collection”)
or Facebook. Regards, -
Origin of the Family Name & History - Popplewell,
from OE popel,
either meaning "pebbly soil" or “bubbling well, or "spring
beside the poplar or poplars". Distribution of the family name in 1881
(above)
At the time of the
Domesday Book (1086) the area was thought to be wasteland (William I, The
Conqueror, of Normandy, in his "harrying of the North" laid waste
to Cleckheaton & Heckmondwyke), however Popplewell was mentioned as part
of the village of Scholes in 1228, part of the greater Wakefield area.
Scholes is a Viking name and therefore later than the OE name, suggesting the
site to be inhabited earlier. Both High
Popplewell and New
Popplewell are on the western side of Scholes village,
against Hartshead Moor, West Yorkshire. Today, little
remains of these two small hamlets and they are only remembered by Old
Popplewell Lane & New Popplewell Lane off the B6120 road leading south
out of Scholes, as well as the family name distributed worldwide. Scholes is
now part of South Bradford, West Yorkshire.
The earliest mention
of the place is in the 1228 register of the Archbishop of York, Walter de
GRAY, which reads "Confirmation
of the grant of corn-tithes of Hulm, Ricrof, Sculebroc, Scales, and
Poplewell, made by Richard, parson of Birstall, to Henry de HORBIRI, clerk,
till he gets some other benefice." In 1254 the area
including Scholes had no more than 14 families (est. total population of 70).
Thomas de Poplewell
lived at Heaton Black in 1311. It is possible today's POPPLEWELL families are
descended from one family or a small group of unrelated families living in
the same area. Y-DNA tests of potential distant male relatives will reveal
whether families are related. The Wakefield
Court Rolls reveal a John
of Popelwelle (1316; who was pardoned) and John of Popilwell (1323:
whose wife Johanna de GOLDALE stole a calf from Agnes de la MERE and was to
be taken). In 1338 there is a mention of Poplewell Charity in the records of
Raistric Brighouses. One of the residents, Thomas de POPLWELL, was a freeman as he
was only one of five men paying taxes in 1347. In the C16th, by
which time the village name would have been adopted as a surname, there was a
Thomas POPPELWELL
(1539; elected constable of the township of Fixby) and a Thomas POPLEWELL
(1551), who may be ancestors of the family. In 1542, the Will of Sir Robert
NEVILLE of Liversedge mentions his lands "in Hie Popilwell, Scoles and
Clackeheton." The important house at High Popplewell was held by Matthew
NEVILLE but occupied by George NEVILLE in 1578. The small barn adjacent the
farmhouse at High Popplewell bore the date 1567. Thomas
POPPLEWELL is a churchwarden re. accounts
29.11.1727 (probably St. Peter's at Hartshead), and an apprentice John BROOK,
was put to William
POPLEWELL of Church House in 1741. A Samuel POPPLEWELL is
mentioned re. accounts for Church & Poor in 1777. Popplewell Charities
(John, Ann & Rebecca) are mentioned in 1820 & 1832. The Charities
were still in use in 1894. If you bear this
name, you are almost certainly part of the many emigrant families that have
been traced back to this C17th area of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England
(Birstall parish). This may also include those with the name variants of POPELWELL, POPLEWELL, POPPEAWELL,
POPPELWELL, POPPLEWEIL,
POPPELL,
POPPERWELL and
POPWELL.
However, although many families stayed in the Yorkshire area, the records
show that the name also moved further afield quite early on. For example, in
England the name is recorded in late C15th Lincolnshire (likely migration
through the intervening Yorkshire East Riding), mid C16th London
(unsurprisingly for traders and a magnet to many in all centuries), C17th
Nottinghamshire, mid C18th Essex & Cornwall, and early C19th Birmingham.
Internationally, the name finds its way to early C18th US (Virginia, then to
Missouri & California), and with further early C19th migrations to both
Australia, New Zealand & the US.
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