This surname is derived from the name of an ancestor. 'the son of Turold,' popularly Tirrell. There can be no doubt as to the personal or baptismal origin of the surname. And it will account for the name of Walter Tyrrel, as a reference to the Index of Freeman's History Norman Conquest will conclusively prove the popularity of Turold in the nth century.

Henry Tyrel Devon, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Walter Tyrel, Norfolk, ibid.

Roger Tirel, Herefordshire, Henry III-Edward I: Testa de Nevill, sive Liber Feodorum, temp. Henry III-Edward I.

William Torel, Somerset, 20 Edward I: Placita de Quo Warranto, temp. Edward I-III.

John Tyrell, Kent, ibid.

Hugh Tyrel, Southamptonshire, ibid.

Thomas Torel, Somerset, 1 Edward III: Kirby's Quest.

Katerina Terell, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

1623. John Tirell and Jane Stokes: Marriage Lic. (London).

1624. Peter Drapier and Barbara Tirrill: ibid.

1641. George Tyrell and Anne Thurlow: ibid.

A Teutonic personal name of great antiquity, which has given rise to a family name very widely spread, and much varied in spelling and pronunciation, the principal forms being Thorold, Turrold, Tyrell, Torel, Turrell, Tourelle, Torill, Tourle, Turl, &c., &c., &c. It comes to us from Normandy, where Turold was one of the preceptors of William the Conqueror, and his Grand-Constable at the time of the Conquest. The name of Turold occurs upon the Bayeux Tapestry, designating one of the ambassadors dispatched by the Norman Duke to Guy, Earl of Ponthieu, and it is supposed that the Turold there represented was the Grand-Constable. Dawson Turner's Tour in Normandy, ii. 104. This celebrated man gave his name to the town of which he was lord and founder, viz., Burgus Thoroldi, now Bourgtheroude, a few miles S.W. of Rouen. In Domesday, we find a Gilbert filius Turoldi among the tenants in chief of the counties of Worcester, Hereford, Cambridge, and Warwick; while an Ilbert filius Turoldi, held a like position in the second named shire. Whether these were sons of the Grand-Constable does not appear. This seems probable, though as there are many tenants called Turold in that record, it is not positively certain. Under Essex, appears one Walterus Tirelde, who is by some supposed to be the Walter Tirel who shot Rufus. Morant's Essex, i. 244.

THEROULDE: A French refugee family. The name is identical with Thorold.

The name of Tyrrell in one form and another was in early times much more common than it is at present. As Tyrel and Tirel it occurred in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, and Devonshire in the reign of Edward I. (H. R.). In the 15th and 16th centuries the distinguished families of the Tyrrels of Bucks and the Tyrells of Suffolk seem to have been the two principal stocks. Those of Suffolk, who resided at Gipping, were descended from Sir John Tyrell of Heron, Essex, in the reign of Henry VI., and they claimed also to be the descendants of Sir Walter Tyrrell or Tiril, who accidentally shot William Rufus. The Tirrells or Terrells were a Reading family in the 17th and 18th centuries, and filled the office of mayor in 1668, 1680, 1699, and 1712. The name is still in the town (Lipscomb's "Bucks," Hollingsworth's "Stowmarket," Coate's "Reading").