Recorded as Wagerfield, Wagesfield, Wagesfeld, and probably others, this is a very rare English locational surname. At least we believe that it is English, although there is a strong possibility that its origins may be German, as no such place in any of the known spellings has been discovered in the gazetters of the British Isles of the past three centuries. On the other hand nor have we been able to discover any place so named in Germany, so this is a puzzle. What we do know is that over the centuries and certainly since the input of the Huguenot refugees from Europe from about the year 1580, there has always been a steady stream of immigrants into the U K. It was often the policy of these people in gratitude to this country for giving them a refuge and the opportunity for a fresh start, to 'anglicise' the spelling of their surname to what at least looked British. Sometimes this was a complete transposition such as Blanc to White, but quite often it was more subtle such as Feld to Field. In this case we cannot offer any explanation except that in the current English spelling it has no obvious meaning, but in German it may translate as the 'waggoners land'. The first recording of the surname is believed to be that of Hannah Wagesfield who married Robert Russell at St Anne's Soho, Westminster, on April 27th 1736.

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