Snoxell

This interesting and unusual name, with variant spellings Snoxill, Snoxell, Snoxhill, and Snox(h)all, recorded in church registers of Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire, from the mid 16th Century is believed to be of locational origin from a lost village called Snokeshull or Snockshill originally in one of those counties. The prime cause of these village "disappearances" was the enforced "clearing" and dispersal of the former inhabitants to make way for sheep pastures at the height of the wool trade in the 14th Century, along with natural causes such as the Black Death of 1348. The first element of the name is most likely the old English pre 7th Century personal byname Snoc, a snake, related to the old Swedish "Snokr", also appearing as the first element in Snorscomb, Northamptonshire, recorded as Snoces Cumb in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, dated 944, and as Snokescumb in the 1220 Fine Court Rolls of that county. The second element is the old English "hyll", a hill (the "y" later became "i", "e" or "u"), hence, "Snoc's hill". One, William Snoksell was recorded in the 1524 Subsidy Rolls for Marsworth, Buckinghamshire, and on October 30th 1541 Alice Snoxill and William Fowler were married in Chesham, Buckingham. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Robert de Snokeshull, chaplain of Vacherie manor, which was dated circa 1349 - 1367, in the "Records of Cranleigh", Surrey, during the reign of King Edward 111, known as "The Father of the Navy", 1327 - 1377. 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.