Wackrill has always been an uncommon surname, and today it is verging on extinction.
Our branch of the family traces its roots to the village of Danbury in Essex, where several generations – many of them confusingly named Uriah – worked as skilled gardeners in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The name itself is rare: in the 1881 England census, only 44 men, women, and children bore this surname, of whom at least 29 were born in Essex[i], with another Uriah Wackrill, recorded living in Devon. By 2014, just 46 people worldwide were recorded with this name.[ii]
For our line, the name ended in the 1890s. Evan Edward William Wackrill, born in Fulham in 1870, began using the surname Banfield in adulthood – a change adopted by his mother Leah and his younger siblings. From then on, all their descendants carried the Banfield name, while Wackrill became a quiet footnote in our family story.
Uriah Wackrill (c.1741-1801) married Mary Mosse (c.1741-1839)
? children: including UriahUriah Wackrill (c.1772-1844 married Susannah Stone (c.1772-1856)
At least six children: Mary, Uriah, Edward, Catherine, George, and Evan
Evan Wackrill (c.1807-1855) married Hannah Bradbery (c.1804-1844)
At least four children: Ann, Hannah, Thomas and Edward
Edward Wackrill (1838-1877) married Leah Ellen Mayo (1847-1927)
Four children: Evan, Thomas, Annie, and Edward.
Evan William Edward Wackrill (later William Banfield) (1870-1940) married Elizabeth Fitzgerald (1870-1909)
