This interesting and unusual name is of English locational origin from a place thus called in Cheshire. Recorded as Schriggel in 1285, and as Shriggeleg in 1288, "The County Court Rolls at Chester", the place was so called from the Old English pre 7th Century "scric", shrike, (a bird belonging to the insessores or perching birds), plus "leah", a wood or clearing; hence, "Wood frequented by shrikes". The surname is particularly well recorded in Cheshire Church registers from the mid 16th Century. On January 30th 1563, Anne Shrigley and Thomas Broughe were married in Prestbury; Elizabeth Shrigley, an infant, was christened in St. Michael's, Macclesfield, on May 16th 1593, and on March 31st 1657, Edmund Shrigley married a Katherine Burgess in Alderley. One of the earliest recordings of the name in London is the christening of Leah Shrigley at St. Giles Cripplegate on February 14th 1675. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Edmunde Shrigleye, (christening), which was dated October 19th 1561, Prestbury, Cheshire, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, "Good Queen Bess", 1558 - 1603. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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