Ewell

This most interesting and unusual name is of English locational origin from any of the following placenames: "Ewell", a town in Surrey; "Ewell (Temple Ewell)" a parish and village near Dover in Kent; "Ewell Manor" in Kent and "Ewell Minnis" a locality near Dover. The place in Surrey was recorded in 675 as "Euuelle" in the Cartularium Saxonicum, while the same source records "Temple Ewell" in Kent as "Aewille" in 772. All of these placenames derive from the same old English pre 7th Century word "aewill", which means "spring or source of a river". The surname itself is first recorded in the mid 16th Century (see below). The name is also found in London Church Registers as the following: Joane Yole married William Strangas on January 13th, 1543 at St. Leonards, East Cheap; Elizabeth Ewell was christened at St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster on September 29th 1560; while Francisca Yewell married Arthurus Keyting also at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, on January 3rd 1600. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Wyllym and Anne Ewell, a christening witness, which was dated April 9th 1543, at Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey, during the reign of King Henry V111, "Good King Hal", 1509 - 1547. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.