Evill family - were they of Huguenot origin?

[NicciH]

My 4 Gs grandfather Benjamin Evill, the base born son of Mary Evill, was born in Corton Denham in 1747.  I have been trying to work out where the surname came from and would welcome any suggestions.

As the name sounds French, I thought that a member of the Evill family could have been among the Huguenots who came from France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685.  The Register of the French Episcopal Church of Bristol 1687-1762 shows that many people fled from Saintonge, a well-known Huguenot stronghold on the French coast.  A  'Suzanne Eveille' is named as a relative of one of them.

An alternative possibility - maybe the Evill surname was derived from Yeovil?

Nicky

[davidft]

It is suggested here the name has been in the UK since the 12th century

http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/evill

[trish1120]

These may be the Burials of Marys Parents;
BURIALS;
St Andrew, Corton Denham
WM Evill, 09 Mar 1732/3 
MARY Evill, 01 Sep 1743, Widow
I noticed Benjamins and Hannahs Burials are under Evil

MARRIAGE;
11 Aug 1706, Holy Trinity. Sutton Montis
Willm EVEL of Corton Denham** to Mary BURT

BAPTISMS to this Couple St Andrew, CD
MARIA, 17 Mar 1708/09 (could this be MARY?)****
SARAH/ANNE/JANE same day 16 Nov 1710
THOMAS, 28 Sept 1718
WILLIAM, 4 May 1722
All under EVIL

Yes looks likely as 2 Childrens Burials have Parents as Willelmi/Mariae
In Latin;
ANNA and JANA Buried 23 Dec 1710, Parents as above

Earliest Marriage I noticed was;
30 Aug 1596, EVANNS, Griffeth to EVILL, Marye, in Dunster
(I didnt look for other spellings using soundex option)

So the Evills have been in Somerset a long time.


All above from Parish Records on FreeREG

Trish

[Redroger]

I have the same surname  in my Somerset Luffman  tree.  Ann Evil. I was told by Somerset  record office it derived from devilled, again French sounding. I thought it suggested possible  witchcraft  in her family.

[davidft]

I have the same surname  in my Somerset Luffman  tree.  Ann Evil. I was told by Somerset  record office it derived from devilled, again French sounding. I thought it suggested possible  witchcraft  in her family.

Re BIB. This is from the link I gave above

Last name: Evill
This name, with variant spellings De(a)vall, De Vile, Devill, Deville, Divall, Divell and Evill, is of Norman locational origin from Deville in Seine - Inferieure, probably so called from the Latin "dei villa" i.e., "settlement under the protection of God"

so far from being possible witchcraft it seems it was originally a very worthy religious name

[NicciH]

Thanks very much for the information about the earlier Evills, which seem to fit my tree. Looks as if my Evills did not have Huguenot origins.

Eville and its variations seems to be a fairly common surname in France, particularly Eveille (I found over 8,000 entries for it in a French genealogy website), so I should think that it has crossed the Channel a few times.

Nicky

[Redroger]

Personally I prefer the DeVille version, "of the town" whether I am right or wrong, this seems to fit well in both Norman and later French. I would also be very surprised if there are not at least two Deville/Evil migrations, i.e.Norman followed by later 16th/17th century Huguenots.

[NicciH]

The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland (2016) has an entry for Deaville, the variants including Evill.  It gives 2 derivations for the name:

1. Norman, English: locative name from Déville in Seine-Maritime -  together with a lot of further information
2. English: nickname from Middle English 'devel' (devil or satan), possibly acquired as a pageant name or as a reduced form of a longer nickname such as that of Robert and William Drepedevel ('kill the devil').  A list of some early bearers of the name includes Devill  but not Evill

Nicky

[Redroger]

Interesting Nicky; Howevr always remember that there was certainly no standardised spelling before Dr. Johnson's first dictionary in the late 18th century. Indeed William Shakespeare spelled his surname at least two different ways in the same document (his will)