A brief history of the origin of the name..
The earliest known recording of the surname Hatchell was in the Domesday Book in 1086, twenty years after the Norman Conquest. Haeccel+tone (Haeccel’s estate, farm or village) in what is now Northamptonshire was said to be named for man called Haeccel. The village is now known as Hackleton (Dictionary of English Place Names). Haeccel was named for his occupation related to flax or perhaps his association with a haecel or hacele which had a dual meaning in Old English for a hooded cloak as well as a flax comb, from the IndoEuropean root word for hook, keg. William le Hekeler, living in1297 AD in Yorkshire, England is the next earliest known occurrence of the surname. William was a flax dresser or linen maker at the Court of Wakefield Castle. Hatchels or hackles are combs of long, hooked iron teeth set vertically in a wooden or metal base. Now relics of the past, they were once used to comb and straighten flax. Shanks or bundles of flax were drawn through a hatchel as one of the final steps in making linen.
Etymology of the Name
Hatchell is English in origin and was derived from Old English haecel, a term used for both a hooded cloak as well as for flax comb, which in turn came from the West Germanic hakila for hook, corrupted to Middle English hechele and hechil. A variant hacele was used for the Anglo-Saxon flax-spun (linen) hooded cloak or vestment known in Latin as ‘pellium’. Although le Hekeler was the Norman written version of the name in 1297, Hackle became the northern English and Scottish form (hard ‘ck’), while Hatchell became the southern English form (soft ‘tch’). By the 17th Century, Hatchell was most common in Devonshire, and apparently was transposed to Ireland during the reign of Oliver Cromwell about 1650. Other variants included Heckler, Heckells and Hatsell. Hatchell and Hatchel are by far the most common spellings today.
The name also has a most interesting link to Teutonic mythology. In Westphalia in the Middle Ages, the name is said to have been most ancient and took the form of Hackleberend from the Old High German hahhul (Gothic hakuls), Old Norse hokull (male) and hekla (female), Anglo Saxon hacele (female) meaning a garment, cloak, cowl, armor, hence hakolberand in Old Saxon for a man in armor. The god Odin in Old Saxon folklore appears as the fierce huntsman on horseback in a broad-brimmed hat, a blue and spotted cloak (hekla bla, flekkott), thus the name Hakolberand is unmistakably an Old Saxon epithet of the Germanic god Wodan which gradually corrupted into Hacklebert, Hackenberg, and Hackleblock. The name of the Hackel-wood may be an abbreviated form of Hakelbernd’s wood out of which road the armoured Wild Horseman of the Night (Grimm’s Teutonic Mythology, Chapter 31, p. 2.).
FROM THE OLD HATCHELL WEBSITE
The Earliest Known Hatchell
- William le Hekeler, who lived in Yorkshire, England in 1297 AD, is the earliest known occurrence of the surname. William was a flax dresser or linen maker at the Court of Wakefield Castle. Hatchels or hackles are combs of long, hooked iron teeth set vertically in a wooden or metal base. Now relics of the past, they were once used to comb and straighten flax. Shanks or bundles of flax were drawn through a hatchel as one of the final steps in making linen. (see Artifacts)
Origin and Distribution of the Name
- Hatchell is English in origin and was derived from the Old English haecel for flax comb, which in turn came from the West Germanic hakila for hook or the hooked teeth of a hatchel.Although le Hekeler was the Norman version of the name in 1297, Hackle became the northern English and Scottish form, while Hatchell became the southern English form. By the 17th Century, Hatchell was most common in Devonshire, and apparently was transposed to Ireland during the reign of Oliver Cromwell about 1650.
The American Hatchells
- Perhaps descended from the Anglo-Irish branch of the family was William Hatchell born in York County, Virginia around 1670, one of the earliest known American Hatchells documented.A descendant of William Hatchell of York County was Morris Hatchell, born about 1750 in Isle of Wight County, VA. Morris settled on Lynches Creek in Darlington District, SC before 1797.One of Morris’ sons, William Hatchell, born about 1786, left SC about 1809 and settled in East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana near present-day Denham Springs.
William Hatchel (Hatsell) of Isle of Wight County and later Mecklenburg County, VA was also a descendant of William of York County, VA and settled on White Oak River in Carteret County, NC about 1779 with his brother Henry and son Willis Hatchel.
A descendant of Willis Hatchel was Elijah Willis Hatchel from Kentucky. He founded the settlement of Hatchel, Runnels County, Texas, near San Angelo around 1900, and became it’s first postmaster.
The connection between William Hatchell of York County, VA and either the English or the Anglo-Irish families has yet to be established.
As indicated above, spelling variants of the name in the U.S. include Hatchell, Hatchel, and Hatsell, and each of these families can be traced back to the early descendants of William Hatchell. By far, this rare name is most common today in the Carolinas, Virginia, Louisiana, and Texas.
- William O’Donald Hatchell 2/1/98