This interesting name has a number of possible origins. The first of these is a Norman surname, and derives from the place called Bouelles in Seine Martime. The place derives its name from the Old Norman-French "boelle", meaning enclosure, dwelling; the recording of one Walter de Bowell in the 1275 Hundred Rolls of Hertfordshire is from this source. Secondly, the modern surname, which can be found as Bowell, Bowells, Bowle and Bowles, may be Welsh in origin, from the Welsh patronymic form of the given name "Howell", "ap" or "ab Howell", where the prefix has, over time, fused with the given name to create Powell, Powles, Bowell and Bowles. Thirdly, the surname may be a variant form of Bowler, an English medieval occupational name for a maker or seller of bowls. Job-descriptive surnames originally denoted the actual occupation of the namebearer, and later became hereditary. An interesting namebearer, recorded in the "Dictionary of National Biography", was Sir George Bowles (1787 - 1876) served in the peninsular and Waterloo campaigns and was master of the queen's household in 1854, and created K.C.B. in 1851. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John de Boweles, which was dated 1292, in the "Fines Court Records of Huntingdonshire", during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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.

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