What's in a Name? The Unknown Origins of the Cossill Surname

This is a post-script to Charles Cossill - What we know - and don't know - so far (Part 1)

We know that there have been several variants of Charles Cossill's surname and that he was illiterate  - at least until the time of signing his marriage registration with an x. He probably had no idea how it could have been spelled or looked when written down. We also know that there is no known ancestry information for Charles under the name Cossill, so it was most likely a clerk or other person adding Charles' name to a list somewhere who decided how it could be spelled - which accounts for the variants of Cossill in the early days of his story in New Zealand. 

 For that reason, it could well have been something like Castle, Cassell, or even Cowsill or Causwell or similar, although I can find no evidence of our Charles anywhere under those versions.  Still, we can presume that Cossill and variants was and still is a rare surname. 

According to forebears.io  (2014 information), the surname Cossill is the 1,544,715th most frequently used surname in the world.  It is most prevalent in New Zealand, then Australia,  with one found in England, which is a clear indication that it wasn't the version of the name Charles was born under. 

There is no known meaning of the surname listed, and the site suggests that approximately only 134 people in the world were using this surname as of 2014. I'm not sure where they get their data from, and it could be under-representative if taken from internet- only available information.  Use the following information as a guide only, though it could help us get closer to the original version of Charles name. Or it could be a total red herring! 

Interestingly, the site's only other year of data (1880) gives the existence of one single Cossill in the entire world - in the United States of America.  Again, not sure where they get their data from, and it can only be taken as a guide. 

Variants of Cossill: 

Cossil  is the 11, 742,229th most frequent surname in the world, with 2 known users - in the USA. 

Cosill is the 14,316,765th most frequent surname, with 1 user in the USA. 

Cossell is the 1,070,546th most frequent surname, with 232 users: 194 in the USA, 22 in England, 14 in Australia, and 1 each in Canada and Germany. 

Similar names - also with no known meaning and a similar low frequency of users - include: Cassill, Coussill, Coshill, Cussill, Costle, Corsell, Cozel  and Coscill. 

Cassell, by comparison, has a greater frequency (34,057th) and is derived from a geographical locality "at the castle" either as a resident or worker within.

Castle: similarly has an even higher frequency (11,550th) and has the same origin as Cassell. 

There could be other surname sites with more information, and I'll also go back and trawl through Ancestry.com and My Heritage lists to look for more likely contenders to consider as possibilities or to eliminate. 

 

I have found evidence of Causill and Cussil  from Suffolk in ancestry.com records, but no connections to Charles,  and nowhere near Rattlesden. 

 Finding Charles' ancestry and origins is certainly like looking for a needle in a haystack. 

Below are some links to Papers Past articles or other official records  and documents which show variants of the spelling of Cossill when referring to Charles or likely members of his family or descendants. It seems to have taken some time to settle into its present version.

 

Cossil (c.early 1830s) Reference in Stephen Wrathall's biography, Ch. 13. 

Charles Cosell (1836) Marriage to Pourewa (marriage registration) 

Murilla Cossell (1857) Marriage to Marquis Thomas Beldon (NZBDM reference 1857/1017) 

Mary Cosell (1857) Likely to be Charles daughter, although does presume that she is literate. 

Mary Cossell (1858) Passenger from Auckland to Mangonui 

Mary Copel (1858) Marriage to Michael Bucket (NZBDM reference 1858/1329) 

Charles Cossell (1858) Petition to Governor from residents of Bay of Islands - signed November 1857) 

Richard Cossell (1865) Paewhenua Island - electoral attestation. 

Joseph Cossill (1876) Mangonui School Prize list 

Margaret Cossill (1893) Marriage to James Graham Johnson (NZBDM reference 1893/1011)