NOTES ON SURNAMES (HULL) 75

WOODMANSEY A surname of Hull and the East Riding, from the village of Woodmansey near Beverley.
Peter of Wodmanse and Richard, son of Thomas Wodmanse, were listed among the debtors of Richard of Feribi, 1328 (Beverley Chapter Act Book)
John Wodmanse and Richard Wodmanse in Beverley, 1381 (Poll Tax)

William Woodmansey was one of the leaders of the Beverley men in the popular uprising known as the Pilgrimage of Grace, 1537. He later fled to Scotland where he was ‘recetted’, i.e., protected. Scotland was still a Catholic country at the time, and the rising had been against Henry viii’s suppression of the Catholic church. He was still in Scotland in 1541 and the English were trying to have him extradited. In the Hamilton Papers he is referred to as “Woodmancy of Beverley, a Captain of the insurrection”.

John, son of William Woodmansey, married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Swanne, at Holy Trinity, Hull in April of 1568
Anthony Woodmancie at Bishop Burton, 1584
Entries in the Trinity House records point to the existence of a seafaring family of the name in Hull:
William Woodmancie, master of the John Bonaventure, 1601
John Woodmansey, Warden of Trinity House, 1606, 1611, 1617, 1622
Thomas Woodmansey, Warden of Trinity House, 1624
Anthony Woodmansea was assessed for tax in Hull, 1695
John Woodmancy was living in Humber Street, Hull; and Robert Woodmancy in Marvell Place, East Hull, in 1835 (Burgess Roll).

The meaning of the name is “woodman’s lake” which probably refers to a man having the occupation of woodman or forester, though Woodman is on record as a male given name in medieval England.