First found in Shropshire where they were seated from ancient times, and were Lords of the manor of Rossall, originally named Rosela. At the time of the taking of the Domesday Book in 1086, initiated by Duke William of Normandy after his conquest of England in 1066, the holdings were known as the Isle of Rossall, held by the Church of St. Chad. A junior branch of this name gave its name to Rossall in Lancashire which was also included in the Domesday Book, but on which the records are now lost.

For many English families, the political and religious disarray that plagued their homeland made the frontiers of the New World an attractive prospect. Thousands migrated, aboard cramped disease-ridden ships. They arrived sick, poor, and hungry, but were welcomed in many cases with far greater opportunity than at home in England. Many of these hardy settlers went on to make important contributions to the emerging nations in which they landed. Among early immigrants bearing the name Rosal or a variant listed above were: Thomas Rassall, who settled in Maryland in 1739; and Richard Rossall, who applied for naturalization in New York in 1856.

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