Villett and similar (Villet, Vilette etc.) as a variation of Willett were excluded from my ongoing “Willetts in Essex” analysis. Villett and variants does often appear in discussion of Huguenot Families, and given the suggestion that the Willetts may be of Huguenot origin, it is accepted that research may have to be expanded. This post looks at the distribution of “Villett” and similar in Essex.
In FreeBMD Data
A basic phonetic search on all FreeBMD records in Essex gives 134 records. This gives 36 name variants.
| Variant | Births | Deaths | Marriages | Totals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vailati | 1 | 1 | ||
| Valade | 4 | 1 | 5 | |
| Valet | 1 | 1 | ||
| Valette | 5 | 3 | 6 | 14 |
| Valeute | 1 | 1 | ||
| Vallat | 3 | 3 | ||
| Valledy | 3 | 1 | 5 | 9 |
| Vallet | 4 | 4 | ||
| Vallette | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Vallot | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Valt | 1 | 1 | ||
| Velati | 3 | 3 | ||
| Veld | 2 | 2 | ||
| Veldt | 1 | 1 | ||
| Velt | 1 | 1 | ||
| Viallet | 1 | 1 | ||
| Vilate | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| Vilday | 2 | 2 | ||
| Vilete | 1 | 1 | ||
| Vilett | 3 | 5 | 8 | |
| Vilite | 1 | 1 | ||
| Villada | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Villette | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Violate | 1 | 1 | ||
| Violet | 16 | 13 | 9 | 38 |
| Violett | 5 | 2 | 7 | |
| Violette | 1 | 1 | ||
| Vlad | 2 | 2 | ||
| Vleit | 1 | 1 | ||
| Voilliot | 1 | 1 | ||
| Voilliott | 1 | 1 | ||
| Voillot | 1 | 1 | ||
| Volde | 1 | 1 | ||
| Volta | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| Vuillet | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Vuleta | 1 | 1 | ||
| Totals | 50 | 34 | 50 | 134 |
The problem with “phonetic searches” is the possibility of “false matches”, a number of the above do not look like plausible variants of Villett.
If I impose a selection criteria of:
- Capital V
- vowel
- one or two “l”s
- vowel
- one or two “t”s, and
- optionally an “e”
The number can be cut down – see the emboldened rows in the table above.
| Variant | Births | Deaths | Marriages | Totals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valet | 1 | 1 | ||
| Valette | 5 | 3 | 6 | 14 |
| Vallat | 3 | 3 | ||
| Vallet | 4 | 4 | ||
| Vallette | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Vallot | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Vilate | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| Vilett | 3 | 5 | 8 | |
| Vilite | 1 | 1 | ||
| Villette | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Totals | 12 | 12 | 20 | 44 |
Analysing the above 44 by Registration District:
| Variant | B.Stort -ford | Brain -tree | Col -chester | Edmon -ton | Epping For | Halst -e(a)d | Roch -ford | Thur -rock | Uttles -ford | W. Ham | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valet | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Valette | 12 | 1 | 1 | 14 | |||||||
| Vallat | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||||||
| Vallet | 2 | 2 | 4 | ||||||||
| Vallette | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||||||||
| Vallot | 3 | 3 | |||||||||
| Vilate | 4 | 4 | |||||||||
| Vilett | 8 | 8 | |||||||||
| Vilite | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Villette | 2 | 2 | |||||||||
| Vuleta | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Total | 2 | 4 | 1 | 15 | 1 | 13 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 44 |
Looking at the same records by “Event Decade”:
| Variant | 1840s | 1850s | 1860s | 1890s | 1900s | 1910s | 1920s | 1930s | 1940s | 1950s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Valet | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Valette | 6 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 14 | ||||||
| Vallat | 1 | 2 | 3 | |||||||||||
| Vallet | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||||||||||
| Vallette | 2 | 1 | 3 | |||||||||||
| Vallot | 2 | 1 | 3 | |||||||||||
| Vilate | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | ||||||||||
| Vilett | 7 | 1 | 8 | |||||||||||
| Vilite | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Villette | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Vuleta | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Total | 8 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 44 |
In Family Search Data
Family Search has a number of Parish and Non-Conformist Records in Essex for “Villett” and variations. A non-exact search on this name returns some very unmatched names such as “Spelles”, “Knelles”, “Hewelless”. After excluding these, duplicates, and records relating to events after the beginning of Civil Registration (which would potentially be double counting those records returned by FreeBMD), we get 17 records. Note that Records for Christenings are indexed as Births in Family Search indices, and Burials are indexed as Deaths.
| Variant | Births | Deaths | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vilate | 3 | 3 | |
| Vilete | 1 | 1 | |
| Vilette | 4 | 4 | |
| Villet | 5 | 5 | |
| Villett | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Total Result | 10 | 7 | 17 |
Looking at these by location we get:
| Variant | “Essex” | Coggeshall | Halstead | Thaxted | Toppesfield | White Notley | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vilate | 3 | 3 | |||||
| Vilete | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Vilette | 1 | 3 | 4 | ||||
| Villet | 2 | 3 | 5 | ||||
| Villett | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | |||
| Total Result | 4 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 17 |
Looking at these 17 by date, shows that the Family Search records only cover the 80 years prior to the beginning of registration.
| Variant | 1760s | 1770s | 1780s | 1790s | 1820s | 1830s | Totals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vilate | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| Vilete | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Vilette | 4 | 4 | |||||
| Villet | 5 | 5 | |||||
| Villett | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | |||
| Total | 1 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 17 |
Conclusion
The above 17 events in the 80 years prior to registration and 44 after registration for Villett and variations compares to about 1000 births for Willett and common variations in Essex in the registration era (say about 130 years of FreeBMD coverage – the coverage is a bit ragged in recent decades as earlier records are transcribed first), which would tend to indicate that Villett and variants are unlikely to distort the analysis of Willett.
However, when reconstructing families we need to be aware that names like Villett before the mid 1700s (i.e. before the Family Search transcriptions) may have been anglicised to “Willett” in the period we have examined.
