William Henry Duignan (16 August 1824 – 27 March 1914)[1] was a solicitor who lived in and around the town of Walsall for his entire life.
He was better known as an antiquarian, writer, historian and local politician and wrote a number of books and pamphlets about local history and especially on the etymology of place naming, many of which are still available today.
[3] He had three children, Florency-Mary, Ernest-Henry, and George-Stubbs, by Mary Minors, of Fisherwick, whom he married in 1850; and a further three children, Bernard, Carl, and Oscar, by Jenny Petersen, of Stockholm, whom he married in 1868.
[4] An antiquarian and etymologist,[5] he wrote three histories of place names and a monograph on Rushall Hall,[6] where he had lived for 29 years.
[7] He was often accompanied in his travels by the Staffordshire businessman and writer Willam Henry Robinson.