The Origins of the Name

 

A difficult surname to live with, but an interesting one, at any rate for a bearer of the name. However, the interest of professional family historians in the name seems limited, to say the least. The Oxford Dictionary of English Surnames does not even mention it, although there were 465 individuals listed in the 1881 census for England alone and 194 of the alternative Viles. The Dictionary does list related names such as Vial, Vials, Viall, Vidal, Vidall, Vital and Vitall, although it does not mention other clearly related names such as Vyle, Vyles, Vill and Villis that occur in the censuses of 1881 and 1901.  The Dictionary also refers to the Old French name of Viel, “which also survives as Veal.”

 

There are a number of possible sources of the name some more likely than others. In Denmark there is a small peninsular and town called Vile, and it is a surname that exists to this day in Denmark. “The name could be inherited it from Viking invaders!” (David Vile) David Vile had also pointed out that the name appears in Norse, Etruscan and Slavic mythology. The name is not uncommon in the Netherlands, along with the version Vilé, also to be found in France. There is a reference to a Claude-François Iobal de Vilé in Lorraine in the early seventeenth century. There is also the name of Ter Vile in the Netherlands.

 

The ultimate source of the name in England would seem to be the Anglo-Norman French word vile which meant a manorial estate, farmstead, town or township, a synonym of the French ville (See The Anglo-Norman Dictionary). In a fourteenth century manuscript in the British Museum the words ville, vile and vyle are all used to mean a town, the manuscript having been written by various hands. (Le Domesday de Gippewyz).  Both vile and vyle would have been pronounced in the same way as ville. I have found a remarkable number of references to people named de Ville, de Vile, or de Vyle coming from Bayonne in France.(see below). Also in the fourteenth century there are references to the name Vyel, including a number from the South West of England.

 

I have come to the conclusion that the various families in the British Isles named Vile do not necessarily share a common origin. The name seems to have derived from a number of different sources, although probably all French, which under the pressure of Anglo-Saxon pronunciation adopted the common form of Vile. Some of the more direct sources are:

 

First, the name Vile or Vilé existed in France at least from early times, mostly in the South. I have found an instance in Albas, Aude, France, in 1681, as well as many other instances in Aude, the Vendee, and Pyrenees-Orientales. The name is quite common in the Catalan area of France and Spain. It would have been pronounced Veel, or Veelai. Thus it could be that some of the English Viles are simply the descendants of French immigrants of the same name, who arrived at different times from different areas. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the names Vile and Viles seem be used almost interchangeably, with the same individual at one time reported as Vile, then later as Viles, and then may revert to Vile again. Whether this usage is due to the people concerned or to the enumerators or registrars is not clear.

 

Second, the derivation of Vile from Viel, is a distinct possibility. Like other related names such as Vyle, Vyles, Vyall, Viol, Vial and Vials, it is an alternative spelling, and indeed simply involves the transposition of the e in Viel, a change that one could expect when the name was being copied by Anglo-Saxons. Although the Viels came from France, it is not clear when or how individual families arrived. The Oxford Dictionary notes that it was the Norman invasion that originally brought the name to England, and gives Richard Viel (1194), Henry Vyel (1275), and Thomas Vyall (1524) as examples. There are also records of a Viel family in St. Giles, London, at the end of the 12^th. and early 13^th century: John Viel was born around 1185 in St. Giles. “The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Reginald Le Viel, which was dated 1173, the pipe rolls of the city of London, during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189.” (The Internet Surname database).  There are records of George Viel in Devon in the middle of the 15^th century (IGI). The Huguenot immigrations seems to be a likely source of many of the more humble Viles. A number of Viels or Viells are recorded in Devon and Cornwall in the 16^th and 17^th centuries and there are a number records of christenings of Viels at French Huguenot churches in London in the 17^th and 18^th centuries (IGI).  In the 18^th century there are baptisms and marriages of Viels recorded in the French Huguenot Church in Threadneedle Street, and Le Temple Huguenot Church in London, as well as the Walloon Church in Southampton. In 1704 the christening took place in St. Mary Bredin Church in Canterbury of “James Vile or Viell”, son of “Henry Vile or Viell” (IGI). In the19^th century the second largest concentration of the name Vile after Somerset is in Kent, and particularly in the area around Canterbury, an area that was very important for Huguenot immigration. The persistence of the names Viel and Vile in the Channel Islands, also an important destination of Huguenots, may be significant.

 

Third, the name Vial is a common French name, particularly in Provence  and Rhone Alpes.  This was also a common name in England in the 17^th. and 18^th. centuries, and many of these were members of French Huguenot churches in London (IGI). Indeed, Charles E. Lart wrote in ???  “The evidences of Huguenot ancestry are strong in Plymouth and the neighbourhood. The family of Touzeau still exists, though it has changed its name to Tozer; Vial is now Vile.....”

 

The fourth source of the name, the one that applies to my own family, lies in the fact that in Dorset, Devon and Somerset in the 16^th and 17^th centuries the name Vyle occurs in the records as an early spelling that later changes to Vile.  It is a form of the name that is found in much earlier times in a number of counties (see below). As stated above, the words vile and vyle were Anglo-Norman French alternative spellings of ville. The family of Otton de Vyle was also recorded in 1380 in what is now Belgium.

 

Thus there are four centres of the population of the Family Vile that are worthy of investigation in order to explore its origins – Somerset, including Glastonbury and the area centred on Puckington; Kent, particularly around Canterbury; East London; and the Channel Islands.

 

The earliest references to Vile, Ville, Vial, Vyle, Vyel Viel or Viell

 

The variety of the origins of the name is illustrated by the references to its differing forms in history:

 

 

c. 1116   Hugh Ville, b. Hatton, Cheshire, daughter. Avice or Alice de Ville  IGI(Ancestor File)  

 

c. 1270-1290   Stephen de la Vyle, witness to a deed, Reading

 

P(etro) de Vile  Grant of land by Edward I (in  Maynan, Ireland?) PRO C 148/134

 

Bernard de Vile of Bayonne, petition to Edward II and the King’s Answer   PRO  C

47/24/3/15

 

Raymond Durand de Vylle, Mayor of Bayonne,   Petition of 1299

Pascal de Vile, Mayor of Bayonne Petition of 1299

Michael de Vile (Ville), Bayonne, Petition of 1318

Bertelot de Ville, Bayonne, Petition of 1318

Dominjon de Vile (Ville), Bayonne, Petition of 1318

 

 

Richard la Vile, Depwade, Norfolk, before 1306

 

14^th. Cent.       Sir William la Vyle, rector of St. Martin, Canterbury

 

1336                Andrew Vyel and William Vyel, Berkshire Record Office

 

1370                John Vyel, Bailiff, Bristol   Bristol Record Office

 

1379                Richard Vyel, July 11, 1379, Freeman of the City of Exeter CD

                                    Mayor’s Court Roll, 2-3 Richard II

1397                Walter Vyel and Emma (or Emmote), his wife

1403-1404        Peter de Vyle of Bayonne, petition to the King, PRO SC 8/231/11522

George Viel                 b. about 1465, Wood, Devon

 

George Viell                Father of Alice Viell                                       IGI

 

Alice Viell                   b. about 1493, South Tawton, Devon             IGI

 

William Viell               b. about 1532, of Trevorder, Cornwall           IGI

 

William Viell               Father of Dorothy Viell                                  IGI

 

Dorothy Viell              b. St. Breock, Cornwall, 1563?                       IGI

 

Grace Viell                  b. about 1554, Madford, Devon                     IGI

 

1496                Richard Vyle, tenant of Portchester Castle Manor,  Hampshire RO

 

1546                John Vyle of Portchester, Hampshire, 24 March 1546 (IGI)

                        and Stephen and Edward, Mrs John, Mrs Annes

 

1553                Robert Vile b. about 1553, m. Catherine Clark, 1578 (IGI)

 

1575                Mary Vyle, christ. 3 Apr 1575, Crediton, Devon  IGI

 

1579                Agnes Vile, widow, will, Southpetherton  (IGI)

 

1580                Chrystyan Vile(F), christ. 9 Dec. 1580, Crediton, Devon  IGI

 

1587                Elizabeth Vyle, christ. 5 Sep. 1587, Crediton, Devon IGI

 

1590                John Vyle, christ. 16 Dec. 1590, Crediton, Devon                 IGI

 

1592                Lawrence Vile , christ. 29 Aug. 1592, Crediton, Devon  IGI

 

1593                Richard Vyle, baptised, Seavington St. Mary (IGI)

 

1595                Marriage of Joan Vile to Bawldon Hill at Barnstaple Boyds

 

1596                Marriage of Cicily Vile to Cris Fort at Milverton  Boyd’s

 

1598                Will of Digory Vile, a clerk, at Laurake, Cornwall     CD

 

1610                Robert Vylle  Male Probate: 1 Oct 1610, of Portchester, Hampshire

 

1612 (circa)     John Vile born at South Petherton CD

 

1616                Will of Richard Vile at Sevington St. Mary   CD

 

1619                Baptism of Anne, daughter of Robert Vile at Barnstaple      CD