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From: Gillian Ford <>
Subject: [HWE] Wastell - Mayhieu, Mayhue, Mahue
Date: Wed, 3 Jan 2007 04:02:26 +1000


My family name was Wastell, and I have traced my father's family back
to John Wastell who married Ann Mayhew, Mayhieu or Mahue in 1730.

Ann's father, Peter Mayhew, was said to be a silk weaver as was his
son-in-law John Wastell, and quite a few of John's descendants were
silk weavers and dyers. My great-grandfather James b.1827 was a silk
dyer, for instance, and so was his brother Daniel.

I have been trying to find out the parentage of John Wastell, have
just written to the LMA (London Metropolitan Archives about it. Was
he a Huguenot, one of the silkweavers from Lyons in France, or did he
marry into his father-in-law's business (i.e., born in England).

The name Wastell I learned many years ago was a French Huguenot name,
transliterated from the French Guastell. Coming from the singular of
the word "gâteau" for cakes. Wastell was a cake or bread of fine,
white flour. Wastell bread or bredde is mentioned in Chaucer's Nun's
tale. There is also the theory that it came from a place in Yorkshire
called Wasdale.

There were Wastells around in England from at least 1100 A.D., and a
number lived in London in the 1500 and 1600s. But as far as I now
know there is no birth record for John Wastell.

Any light or interest out there?

Gillian Wastell Ford
Australia

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