Marshall History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Etymology of Marshall

What does the name Marshall mean?

The name Marshall arrived in England after the Norman Conquest of 1066. It is a name for a blacksmith or a person who tended horses deriving its origin from the Old English word marshal, which meant blacksmith. In medieval England, blacksmiths were extremely important because they were employed by the nobility to look after the horses. 1

John Marshal (d. 1164?), the English warrior, was “son and heir of Gilbert Marshal, who was unsuccessfully impleaded with him in the court of Henry I by Robert de Venoiz and William de Hastings for the office of master of the king’s marshalsea (Rot. Chart. p. 46), from which the family took its name. In the ‘Pipe Roll’ of 1130 he is found paying for succession to his father’s lands and office (p. 18) and in possession of an estate in Wiltshire (p. 23). In 1138 he fortified Marlborough and Ludgershall (Ann. Wint.), probably as one of the rebels of that year, for Stephen was besieging him in Marlborough when the empress landed, in 1139 (Cont. Flor. Wig. p. 117). In 1140 he was approached by Robert FitzHubert, who had seized Devizes Castle, and who hoped to secure Marlborough; but John, overreaching him, made him his prisoner, and then sold him to the Earl of Gloucester.” 2

William Marshal first Earl of Pembroke and Striguil of the Marshal line (d. 1219), “Regent of England, was second son of John Marshal (d. 1164?) [q. v.], by his second wife, Sibyl, sister of Patrick, earl of Salisbury. He is represented as describing himself as over eighty years of age in 1216, but his father and mother were not married till 1141, and 1146 is a more likely date for his birth. When Stephen besieged John Marshal at Newbury in 1152, the young William was given as hostage for a truce and the surrender of the castle. John Marshal refused to keep the terms, and his son’s life would have been sacrificed had not Stephen, attracted by the child’s bold spirit and pretty ways, protected him.” 2

Early Origins of the Marshall family

The surname Marshall was first found in various counties in England including Cambridgeshire, Somerset and Oxfordshire where William le Marechal, Gunnilda le Marescall and Robert Marescallus were all recorded respectively in the Hundredorum Rolls of 1273. Later, the Yorkshire Poll Tax Rolls of 1379 lists Willelmus de Scheplay, marciall, and Johannes Mareschall. 3

“Distributed over England, its great home being in Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, whilst there are less important homes in Northumberland in the north and in Somerset in the south. The name is of foreign origin. It was originally “Marechal,” or “Mare – schalks,” the old name for a horse – groom or farrier, in which sense it is still used in France. The post became dignified. The name has extended from the north of England into central and southern Scotland.” 4