Curgenven

This unusual and interesting name, recorded in Cornish church registers under the variant spellings Cargenven, Curgenuer, Corgenvin etc., from the early 18th Century is believed to be a dialectal variant of the Celtic Carreglefn. There is a place in Anglesey, so called from the Welsh "Caer", a fort or village, plus the personal name "Glenwen", from "glan", clean and "gwen", white. On November 30th 1722, John Cargenven and Catharine Uren were married in Uny Lelant, Cornwall and on September 19th 1736 Honor, daughter of Benjamin Curgenuen, was christened in the same place. The variant Corgenvin was recorded in Devonshire in 1806 when on November 29th of that year, John Corgenvin married a Mary Nichalls in Stoke Damerel, and on January 27th 1830 Unitha Kerginwin married a Jacob Barter in Buckfastleigh, Devon. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard Curgenven, (witness at a christening), which was dated December 26th 1713, St. Michael's, (Arhayes, Cornwall, during the reign of Queen Anne, known as "The Last Stuart Monarch", 1702 - 1714. 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.