This interesting surname of English origin is either a nickname for a dirty person deriving from the Old English pre 7th Century "ful" meaning "dirty", "foul", or a dialectal variant of Fowle, a nickname for someone who in some way resembled a bird, deriving from the Old English pre 7th Century personal name "Fugol" meaning "bird". The surname dates back to the late 13th Century, (see below). Further recordings include one Nicholas le Fowel (1275), "The Subsidy Rolls of Worcestershire". Variations in the idiom of the spelling include Fewell, Fuell, Fuel, etc. Henry, son of Philip Fewill, was christened on April 23rd 1631, at St. Giles Cripplegate, London. The church records of St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster, include one Francisca Fuell christened on December 15th 1661, and Philip Fuell christened on May 7th 1665. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William le Foul, which was dated 1271, The Feet of fines, Cambridgeshire, during the reign of King Henry 111, "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. 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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