Recorded as Treswell, Tresswell, Triswell and even Truswell, this is an English surname. It is locational from a village called Treswell in the county of Nottinghamshire. The place was first recorded as Tireswelle in the famous Domesday Book of 1086, and as Tireswell some three centuries later in 1316. The name is believed to mean 'The noisy stream' or similar from the pre 7th century words 'tirlle-waella,' although is is also possible that Tirlle could have been a personal name meaning 'curly headed'. Locational surnames are usually 'from' names. That is to say names given to people after they left their original homes to move somewhere else. In so doing, they took or were given. for easy identification, the name of their former home, and this became what we now know as the surname. Spelling being at best indifferent and local accents very thick, soon lead to the development of variant spellings. In this case the surname is well recorded in the surviving church registers of the city of London from at least Elizabethan times. These recordings include Ralph Treswell who married Sissely Cressy at St Mary Aldermary, on February 10th 1586, and Robert Truswell who married Mary Kidgell at St James Westminster, on November 13th 1763.

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