Pressnall family history
:
The English surname Pressnall, and its variants Priestnall, Presnell, and Priestner (plus a large number of variant spellings) derived from the place where the original bearer once lived or held land. In this instance, the name indicates "one who came from Priestnal," the name of a hamlet in County Chester in England, which does not exist today. In the north of England, the place name Priestnall was pronounced Priestnow and from this the name became corrupted to Priestner. Priestnall is composed of the Middle English "prest" meaning "priest" and "knoll" meaning "hill."
One of the earliest records of the Pressnall surname dates back to 1566 when the baptism of Anna Prestenall is recorded in the Register for the church of Prestbury, County Chester. The marriage of Thomas Prisnall and Katherine Gortun is listed as 1 December 1578, at Shakerstone, Leicester, England. John Prisnoll marries Joan Osborne at Totteridge, Hertford, England on 15 August 1584. The marriage of Chariti Presnell and Robert Courthous is recorded in Bishops Caundle, Dorset, on 15 May 1620. Susanna Presnell, daughter of Richard Presnell, was christened on 7 April 1633, at Saint Giles, Reading, Berkshire, England.
These early English records show the various spellings of the family name that existed, and that the Pressnall family name is more than 400 years old.
The information above was obtained from the web site of:
Major Michael C. Presnell, Leavenworth, Kansas.
For more detailed info, visit Major Mike's web site at: http://www.presnell.net.
