This surname is derived from a nickname. 'the sorel,' a nickname of complexion, of a reddish-brown colour. Old French sor, diminutive sorel; compare Blondel, Burnell, Russell; v. Sor.

John Sorel, Oxfordshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Robert Sorel. Placitorum in domo capitulari Westmonasteriensi.

Richard Sorel, c. 1300. Writs of Parliament.

'Sorrell Tempest, Whit Tempest, Baye Tempest,' names of three horses, 1526, belonging to Tempest family: Whitaker's Craven.

1684. Baptised — Timothy, s. Timothy Sorrell: St. James, Clerkenwell.

1797. Married — John Sorrill and Rachel Haslewood: St. George, Hanover Square.

Bardsley, in his ‘English Surnames,’ describes this as a nickname given to red-haired persons. “The young hind, from its early indefinite red, is known as ‘Sorrell’; and Aubyn, in his ‘Lives,’ describes Butler, author of Hudibras, as having ‘a head of sorrell haire.’”Hinds are, however, never called sorells; this appellation properly belongs to the young fallow deer, who grows from a fawn into “a pretty, pleasing prickett,” thence to a sorell, a sore, and finally becomes a buck. Nor are we, I trust, bound to draw the inference that Agnes Sorel’s hair was red.

This name is of very early occurrence in Leicestershire. Henry II. confirmed to Leicester Abbey by charter the churches of Thornton and Siresham, the gift of Thomas Sorrel; Simon Sorel witnesses a deed of Robert Blanchemains, Earl of Leicester, about 1180; and Lucas Sorell was a landowner in the time of John. - Nichol's Leicestershire. This is the last mention I can find of them in that county.

In Yorkshire Helias Sorel, for the health of himself and of Quinild his wife, gave some lands in Billingley to Monk Bretton. - Hunter's Deanery of Doncaster. In Gloucestershire Robert Sorell witnessed Edward II.’s charter to Keinsham Priory (Mon. Angl.). Tebbald Sorell, of Norfolk, occurs about 1199 in the Rotuli Curiæ Regis: and there is some subsequent mention of the family in that county during the reign of Henry III. Thomas and Simon Sorel then held of the Earl Warren; Thomas gave some lands to Sibton Abbey in Suffolk; which were afterwards confirmed by Simon his brother. John Quirel, alias Sorel, and Agnes his wife were benefactors of Castleacre Priory in 1257. - Blomfield’s Norfolk. In the Rotulus Magnus Pipæ of the reign of Henry I., I find entered William Sorell of Suffolk. Thomas Sorel, resident in the Liberty of the Bishop of Ely in Cambridgeshire, was summoned to serve against the Scots in 1322. - Palgrave's Parl. Writs. Two others of the name, Richard and Robert, are also mentioned; the former in Wiltshire. In Essex, there was a John Sorell, living before 1626, whose son of the same name bought Hide Hall in 1650; the line ended with Richard Sorel in 1728. They bore Gules, two lions passant Ermine. - Morant's Essex.

Sorell: not met with before the reign of Henry II. Now Sarell and Serle and Searle, the Norman Serlo, a personal name.

The Sorrells belong to an old Essex family. A family of Sorrel or Sorell possessed Hide Hall, Great Waltham, and other properties in that parish from 1650 to 1738, when the estates passed out of the direct male line; to this family belonged the living of Stebbing (W.). William Sorrell was an Essex gentleman who contributed £25 for the defence of his country at the time of the Spanish invasion of 1588 (Sp.). The name still occurs in Great Waltham. In the 13th century the name of Sorel occurred in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Bucks, Oxfordshire, and Devon (H. R.).