There is a problem about the spelling of Woodall. There is, of course, a problem with the spelling of all surnames - both contemporary (where spelling, without dictionaries or literacy, could vary even within a single document) and interpreted (where a researcher has to choose the best representation of the surname for modern eyes and ears).
The problem here is slightly more complex, in that the interpreted spelling for the early part of the clan is Woodhall, and the interpreted spelling for the later part is usually Woodall and variants.
The surname Woodhall is based on the placename Woodhall - it's sensible to keep the surname spelling the same as the place while the freehold of Woodhall was still held. After that, it's sensible to follow local usage. So, after years of switching between the two, I'm going to formalise this: I shall use WOODHALL to describe the earlier generations who held freeholds in Dean, and WOODALL to describe those later who probably held by customary tenure. The split occurs in the sixteenth century.
Woodhall Sources
The great Percy family, from their local base at Cockermouth Castle, were lords over Cockermouth, Allerdale, the Five Towns and Derwentfells. Court rolls from 1473 to 1535 survive. A further survey was taken in 1578. Fortunately, the parish register starts only a few years after the end of the court rolls.
The Woodhall lands, as freeholds, were subject to Inquisitions Post Mortem [IPMs]
Harleian MS., 1541, folio 55 contains a Woodhall pedigree. This is based on a Visitation of Essex in 1634. Visitations used information provided by the family, and so their reliability is always open to question. A general rule of thumb is to take the immediate two generations before the informant as probably accurate, but anything before those with increasing doses of salt.
This Woodhall pedigree is sound in its later details, being consistent with material from other sources; but the early information isn't necessarily so.
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13th ELIZ., TRIN. [=1571] |
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George Porter, gen |
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William Woodhall, als Unedale, gen |
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Tents in Deane and Cockermouth |
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13th & 14th ELIZ., MICH. [=1571] |
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Robert Benne, Thomas Laythes, Cler., Cuthbert Rogers, William Browne, John Nicholson, John Feran of Deanscales, John Feran of Perdisson, Henry Bowman |
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William Woodhall, gen., and Mary, his wife. |
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3 messuages and land in : Overclyfton als Kyrkelyston als Parva Clyfton, Locraybanck, Gosforth, Hayle, Deaneskayles, Perdisson, Lamplewgh, Ullocke |
£80 |
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'Feet of Fines' [court recordings of land transactions] are key here.
These were transcribed and published by J.P. Steele: "Feet of Fines, Cumberland, during the reigns of Edward VI, Mary, Philip and Mary, and Elizabeth. Extracted from the public records by Col. J. P. Steel. [England. Court of Common Pleas. London : Warren Hall & Lovitt, 1921]".
Neither Waters nor Reedy [below] used these 'Feet of Fines'.
Other miscellaneous contemporary records are also useful.
Two more modern works contain interpreted Woodhall genealogy: "Genealogical Gleanings in England" by Henry F. Waters, edited by John and Vernabell Saint Holbuell, Fort Benton MT, pp 50-57; and "Reformation Legacy - a Memorial to Archbishop Edmund Grindal of St. Bees and the Family Histories of his Nephew and Nieces in England plus the Related Grindal Lines in Western Cumbria", by John and Evelyn Reedy. Privately Printed, 2005. I believe that there is a copy of the latter in Whitehaven RO. Neither of these look at the later Woodall branches.
I haven't researched the Woodhall family especially - the Woodhall evidence that I present here is largely from Reedy; but, because of the 1571 'Feet of Fines', I haven't come to the same conclusinns.