Twamley

This very interesting surname is English. As there is no known place as Twamley, this suggests that it is almost certainly one of a small group of descriptive topographical surnames which originally commenced "aet or atte", and over the centuries became "fused". We believe that the surname derives from an early form of place name such as "aet Wemba leah", now Wembley in Middlesex, or from "aet Wuma-Legh", now Warmley in the county of Gloucestershire. The first place is recorded in the Ancient British rolls of the year 825 a.d, whilst the second appears in the Pipe Rolls of Gloucestershire for in the year 1205 a.d. There is a further, if remote possibility, that the surname may be an "anglicized" spelling of a Huguenot refugee name as a John Twamlour is recorded at the famous church of St. Martins-in-the-Field, Westminster, on September 7th 1709, and this recording slightly preceeds our earliest known recording of "Twamley" in the surviving registers of the diocese of Greater London. This was a John Twamley. Dated April 4th 1719, he was a witness at the church of St. Dunstans in the East, Stepney, on April 4th of that year, and during the reign of King George Ist of England, 1715 - 1727. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was sometimes known as the Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.