This interesting and unusual name is of medieval English origin and is a metonymic occupational name for a maker of rope, especially the stout type of rope used in maritime occupation. The derivation is from the Anglo Norman French "cable", the Latin "capulum" of Arabic origin, meaning a halter, but associated with the Latin "capere", to take or seize. In the modern idiom the variant includes Cabel, Cabell and Cabble. Amongst the sample recordings in London are the marriages between Thomas Cable and Emma Woddecokk in 1554, Kezia Cable and Samuel Kent at St. George's, Hanover Square, in 1788. One Ann Cable, the infant daughter of Morris Cable was baptised in 1640 at St. James's, Clerkenwell. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Adam Cabel, which was dated circa 1272, in the "Hundred Rolls of Norfolk", 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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