Murgatroyd (with variants including Murgatroid) is a surname among the English nobility, originating in Yorkshire.[2] Its etymology, according to one source, is as follows: in 1371, a constable was appointed for the district of Warley in Yorkshire. He adopted the name of Johanus de Morgateroyde, or literally: Johanus of Moor Gate Royde or 'the district leading to the moor'.[3] Another source says the place name means Margaret's road.[4] In Old Norse, royd means "clearing" (as in cutting down forest for agriculture).[5] Although Moorgate in London was a gate with the road to the moor passing through, in Yorkshire, gate (again from Old Norse) means "street", so Moor Gate Royd would be 'a clearing in the forest on the road to the moor'.[6]
Moor-gate-royd or Murgatroyd as of 1432 when a John Murgatroyd of Murgatroyd was first recorded as residing there, is on the Southern slopes of Highroad Well Moor. A variation in spelling is seen in 1452, as Morgadrode, the surname of a Halifax yeoman. [7]
Murgatroyd, the stately home and seat of the family, was badly damaged during the Battle of the Hollins (named after the forest below the estate) on 23 October 1643, when Colonel Bradshaw, Captain Taylor, two Lancashire Companies, and eleven 'Clubists' marched to the fortified home, which had been at the disposal of Sir Francis Mackworth and contained the family-backed Royalists and accompanying munitions.[8][9]
The Royalist captain would no doubt have made ready for the attack. He was pleasantly engaged in a tete-a-tete with his host James Murgatroyd and his good wife Mary, on the invincibility of their sturdy homestead, when suddenly they were arrested by the ping of Roundhead bullets. It wasn't exactly a Marston Moor, this battle of the Hollins, but quite sufficiently exciting while it lasted. Both sides fought with great valour, not only with guns and swords but also after the manner of the Middle Ages, by hurling great stones at the heads of the enemy[8]
With much of Murgatroyd damaged in the battle, James Murgatroyd, the Head Greave of Warley, moved the family seat to one of the other estates, East Riddlesden Hall. The National Trust property is most associated with the family to this day.
American vaudevillian and actor Bert Lahr used the catchphrase "Heavens to Murgatroyd!" in the 1944 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical comedy Meet the People. The phrase was later popularized by the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Snagglepuss.
