Woodville History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

Early Origins of the Woodville family

The surname Woodville was first found in Northamptonshire at Woodwell, a hamlet about a mile west of the village of Woodford. Some of the first records of the name include: Robert de Wudewelle who was listed in Bedfordshire c. 1240 and Geoffrey de Wodewell who was listed in the Subsidy Rolls of Suffolk in 1327.

The place name literally means "dweller by the stream or spring in the wood," from the Old English words wuda, wiella. 1

The parish of Grafton Regis in Northamptonshire was an important family seat of the family. The Manor was the birthplace of Elizabeth Woodville (1437-1492) who married Edward IV in 1464. The Manor later passed to the Grey Marquesses of Dorset, descendants of queen consort Elizabeth Woodville by her first marriage to Sir John Grey.

Early History of the Woodville family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Woodville research. Another 91 words (6 lines of text) covering the years 1426, 1437, 1442, 1446, 1455, 1460, 1466, 1467, 1469, 1483, 1484, 1487, 1492 and 1618 are included under the topic Early Woodville History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Woodville Spelling Variations

Spelling variations of this family name include: Woodvile, Woodville, Woodwell, Woodwill and others.

Early Notables of the Woodville family

Distinguished members of the family include

Richard Woodville Rivers (d. 1469), an English nobleman, knighted (1426), and was made the 1st Earl Rivers in 1466; and his daughter, Elizabeth Woodville (1437-1492), Queen consort of Edward IV of Eng...
Anthony Woodville or Wydville, Baron Scales and 2nd Earl Rivers (1442?-1483), was the eldest son of Richard Woodville, 1st Earl Rivers. Lionel Woodville (1446?-1484), Bishop of Salisbury, was his youn...

Woodville migration to the United States +

Some of the first settlers of this family name were:

Woodville Settlers in United States in the 19th Century

Wm. Woodville, who was on record in Maryland in 1812
William Woodville, aged 20, who arrived in Maryland in 1812 2
William Woodville, who arrived in Baltimore in 1818
John Alonzo Woodville, who was Naturalzied in New Orleans sometime between 1868 and 1898

Woodville migration to West Indies +

The British first settled the British West Indies around 1604. They made many attempts but failed in some to establish settlements on the Islands including Saint Lucia and Grenada. By 1627 they had managed to establish settlements on St. Kitts (St. Christopher) and Barbados, but by 1641 the Spanish had moved in and destroyed some of these including those at Providence Island. The British continued to expand the settlements including setting the First Federation in the British West Indies by 1674; some of the islands include Barbados, Bermuda, Cayman Island, Turks and Caicos, Jamaica and Belize then known as British Honduras. By the 1960's many of the islands became independent after the West Indies Federation which existed from 1958 to 1962 failed due to internal political conflicts. After this a number of Eastern Caribbean islands formed a free association. 3

Woodville Settlers in West Indies in the 18th Century

John Woodville, who settled in Dominica in 1776

Contemporary Notables of the name Woodville (post 1700) +

Richard Caton Woodville Sr. (1825-1855), American painter
William Woodville (1752-1805), English physician and botanist, born at Cockermouth in Cumberland, Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1791 4
Richard Caton Woodville Jr. (1856-1927), English painter, son of Richard Caton Woodville
Katherine Woodville (b. 1938), British film and television actress
William Woodville Rockhill (1854-1914), United States diplomat, best known as the author of the U.S.'s Open Door Policy for China
Richard Woodville Rivers, English soldier
Anthony Woodville Rivers (1442-1483), English nobleman
Woodville Latham (1837-1911), American Major with the Confederacy during the American Civil War, and professor of chemistry at University of West Virginia

Citations +

Reaney, P.H and R.M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames. London: Routledge, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-415-05737-X)
Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_West_Indies
Wikisource contributors. "Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900." Wikisource . Wikisource , 4 Jun. 2018. Web. 13 Feb. 2019