This interesting surname, long associated with the Lake District, is of Anglo-Saxon or Old Norse origin, and is a locational name deriving from either of two places in Westmorland and Yorkshire. Kendal in Westmorland was originally named Kirkby Kendal, and is recorded as "Cherchebi" in the Domesday Book of 1086 and as "Cherkaby Kendale" in "Records of Kendal" from 1090 - 1097. The placename means "the valley of the River Kent", from the ancient British (pre-Roman) river-name "Cunetio" with the Olde English pre 7th Century "dael" valley. Kendale in Yorkshire is in the parish of Driffield, and derived it's name from the Old Norse "kelda", spring, with "dalr", valley. The surname from both of these sources is now very widespread, being found in as distant a county as Cornwall in appreciable numbers, and has developed a variety of forms, ranging from Kendal(l), Kendell and Kendle to Kindall, Kindell and Kindle. London Church Registers record the christening of Chrystover, son of Thomas Kendall, on August 12th 1544 at St. Mary Bothaw, and the marriage of Edward Kendall and Agnes Deuton at St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, on April 12th 1572. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John de Kendale, which was dated 1332, in the "Lancashire Subsidy Rolls", during the reign of King Edward 111, known as "The Father of the Navy", 1327 - 1377. 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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