Setchell - Name

This most interesting and unusual surname is of Old French origin, and originated as a nickname for a maker of little bags, derived from the Old French word "sachel", a little bag. The name was introduced into England after the Norman Conquest of 1066 in the Old French form "sachel", along with the similar term "sachier", a maker of sacks, bags, which has given rise to the modern surname "Sacher". The native equivalent of the surname in England is derived from the Olde English pre 7th Century "sacc", sack, bag, which produced the surnames Sack, Sacker, Secker and the diminutive form Sackett. The surname itself first appears in the mid 13th Century (see below), while other early examples include Thomas Sachel, recorded in the Subsidy Rolls of Somerset in 1327; the christening of Francis, son of Francis and Margarett Satchell, at St. Andrew's, Holborn, London, on January 10th 1663; and the marriage of Jane Setchell to Andrew Rouquet on November 15th 1746, at St. Mary's, Marylebone Road, in London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Nicholas Sachel, which was dated 1243, witness in the "Assize Court Rolls of Somerset", during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. 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.