Kempshall

Recorded in many spellings including Camsall, Camsell, Campsall, Campsell, Campsill, Kampshall, Kampshell, and no doubt others, this is an English surname. It is locational from a village called Campsall near the town of Doncaster, in the former West Riding of Yorkshire. First recorded in the famous Domesday Book of 1086 as 'Cansale', and in the Yorkshire Charter Rolls of 1157 as Camsala and later in 1227 as Cameshal and again as Kemeshal in 1239, it is easy to understand why there are so many surname spellings. The derivation is from the Old Celtic pre 7th century word 'camglais', meaning a crooked stream or, in the case of Campsall, a place situated at the sharp bend of the stream. Locational surnames are usually "from" names. That is to say names given to people after they left their original village, generally to seek work, and being given as their surname, the name of the place from whence they came. Early examples of the surname recording taken from early surviving registers of the diocese of Greater London include: Elizabeth Kempsall, who married Thomas Carter at the church of St Andrews by the Wardrobe, on January 19th 1558, Jone Kempshall, at St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate on HJuly 15th 1593, and Mary Camsell, who married Henry Onion at St Martins in the Field, Westminster, on May 27th 1835. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.