The Early Days

The first record ever found with the name is in 1235:

Ricardus de Stiyelewell queritur quod Willelmus Capellanus de Witle et David Clericus et Gilebertus serviens Roberti de Ferles verberaverunt eum et turpiter tractaverunt, et dederunt ei orbus ictus, et abstulerunt ei firmaculum suum precii viij d., et xv d. Post venit Ricardus et retraxit se, et ideo ipse et plegii sui in misericordia, scilicet Willelmus de Wakeford et Alanus de Burghurst.

Richard de Stiyelewell complains that William Chaplain of Witley, David Clerk and Gilbert serjeant of Robert de Ferles beat him and shamefully treated him, and dealt him blows without drawing blood, and took from him his clasp, worth 8d., and 15d. Afterwards Richard came and withdrew, and so he and his pledges, namely William de Wakeford and Alan de Burghurst, are in mercy.

This is from the Surrey Court Eyre (travelling court) of 1235 for the Goldalming Hundred. Reading this centuries later it strikes one as being a "he hit me, mum" type of complaint. Probably not funny to Richard at the time. Note the odd spelling of Stilwell. Of more importance, note that the name is recorded as "de Stiyelewell" - of Stiyelewell, in Witley Surrey. So where is this "Stiyelewell" place then?

The meaning of the name is well understood, but care needs to be taken with "I"s and "Y"s which were interchangeable at this time. Nor was spelling standardised at the time.  The word "Style" can also be written as "Still", "Stile" etc and usually means "Pure" (as used in the word "distil" - purify). It can also mean "constant". The word "Well" is common and means a place to draw water. This can also be a pond or spring. So the name Stilwell comes from an area where there are pure (or constant) springs. Old documents refer to two small areas of land in Bowlhead Green, in the parish of Thursley (adjacent to Witley) called High Stilwells and Nether Stilwells. Investigation has traced these names to two springs.

Getting back to the migration of the name from its source, it only appears in any records anywhere in England from this area of Surrey until the early 1500's. Because of Henry VIII's dissolutionment of the church in the 1500s, most earlier official records have been lost as they were usually held by the church or diocese, but some records survive. For example, in 1324 in the Pedes Finium of Surrey (literally "feet of fines") there is the following record:

This is the final agreement made in the court of the lord the King at Westminster from the day of St Michael within one month in the eighteenth year of the reign of King Edward the son of King Edward before William de Bereford John de Mulford William de Herle John de Stonore and John de Brousser justices and other faithful subjects of the lord the King then there present Between William Stilewell plaintiff and Richard Merk of Farnham and Alice his wife deforciants of one messuage with appurtenances in Farnham whereof a plea of covenant was summoned between them in the same court to wit that the aforesaid Richard and Alice acknowledge the aforesaid messuage with appurtenances to be the right of the same William and that they rendered to him in the same court To have and to hold to the same William and his heirs of the chief lords of that fee by the services which to the aforesaid messuages pertain forever And moreover the same Richard granted for himself and his heirs that they will warrant to aforesaid William and his heirs the aforesaid messuage with appurtenances against all men forever And for this acknowledgement surrender warranty fine and agreement the same William gave to the aforesaid Richard and Alice 100s of silver.

The above is a translation from the original Court French. The non-lawyers amongst us would not really understand it, but it seems that William Stilwell lost his case and had to pay Richard and Alice Merk 100s [shillings?] of silver. Quite a large sum for the time.

In 1332, in the property tax record for Witley there are three entries for Stilwells:

Richard Styelwelle for viiis iiid [8 shillings and 3 pence]
William Styelwell for iiis iiid [3/3d]
Robert Stielwelle for iiiis xd [4/10d]

From the 1500's onwards, records are more numerous and there are Stilwells recorded as militiamen (most militia Stilwells seem to have been pikemen, suggesting they were tall, strong and thickset). From the 1583 Surrey muster (the list of men who could be called to arms) we have:

5 Stilwells in Dorking
2 Stilwells in Westcott [near Dorking]
3 Stilwells in Mylton [at Westcott]
4 Stilwells in Thursley
2 Stilwells in Chiddingfold [near Thursley]
4 Stilwells in Witley
4 Stilwells in Godalming

That's just 10 adults in and around Dorking, and 14 adults in the Thursley/Godalming area.

Records of baptisms, marriages and burials start to become more common from the 1500's. The parish records for Dorking are particularly complete from that period to the current day. The parishes of Thursley and Witley variously merged and split through the centuries but with an unfortunate gap in the parish records when someone "borrowed" one of the parish record books and failed to return it (believed to have happened in Victorian times). This has made researching that Stilwell lineage more difficult than it should have been.

From the baptism records between 1500 and 1800 the demographic maps seen below have been produced (note that the background map is traced from one produced in the early 1800's). The bigger the red spot, the more baptisms recorded. The maps are simply to give the reader a guide as to the spread of the Stilwells and areas where they concentrated more. Some small numbers of births in little villages have been included in the "red spot" in the nearest location to avoid the map becoming too busy.

Note the concentration of Stilwells in the Dorking and London areas, but the spread outwards from the Thursley area. The Dorking families were thriving, the London families were spreading out from the east end, but the Thursley families were initially spreading up and down the Portsmouth Road and along the coast in search of work. By the 1750s they had also migrated west into Hampshire and Berkshire. Very few families have been found living well away from the southeast of England before the railways started to be built in the 1830s. One family took what must have been an epic journey by road from Godalming to Nottingham to follow a job opportunity in framework knitting in 1806, that industry being common to Godalming and the East Midlands. Any other baptisms and marriages outside the southeast can be traced to the father/groom being in Army service and stationed in that area. After 1840, the explosion of railways made migration easier, and two examples are of Stilwell families making their way from Dorking to Yorkshire (weaving), and from London to Birmingham and Lancashire (craftsmen). The vast majority of Stilwells remained in southeast England despite the opportunities to travel far by rail.