Recorded in many forms including Scales, Schoales, Scholes, Scoles, Scoyles, Scarles, Scarll, Scarrell, Skarle, Skarles, Skeal, Skeel, and others, this is an early English surname It is however of pre 7th century Scandanavian-Viking origins and derives from the word "skali", meaning a hut or temporary shelter. As such it was habitational for someone who lived at one of the places called Scales and Schole(s). These include the villages of Scales in Cumberland and Lancashire; Scholes in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and Scole near Diss in Norfolk. The surname is first recorded in the latter part of the 13th century and examples of early recordings include Adam de Scoles in the Assize Court of Lancashire in 1285; Thomas del Scales of Cumberland in the Subsidy Tax rolls of 1332, Robert Scales of Hauxhead, in the Lancashire Wills register at Richmond in 1591, and Mary Scarl who married John Vousell at the famous church of St Mary-le-Bone, in the city of London, on April 25th 1686.Thomas de Scales, the seventh Baron Scales and seneschal of Normandy in 1434, commanded in the fight against John Cade and his supporters on London Bridge in 1450. The first recorded spelling of the family name in any form may be that of Richard del Scoles. This was dated 1275, in the Court Rolls of the Manor of Wakefield, Yorkshire. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.