Show ContentsCattel History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The name Cattel is tied to the ancient Anglo-Saxon culture of England. It comes from Chetel, an Old Norse and Old English given name. "The Welsh Annals (Annales Cambriae, Mon. Hist. Brit.) mention a Catell, king of Powys, in A.D. 808, and other eminent personages of the same Christian name. Cattal is, however, the name of a township in the West Riding of Yorkshire. " 1

Early Origins of the Cattel family

The surname Cattel was first found in Norfolk, where Chetel Frieday, a freeman was listed in 1087. 2 Early records were more often than not of the name as a forename as almost two hundred years later, the Hundredorum Rolls of 1273 list Cattle Bagge in Cambridgeshire. 3 The same rolls include Hervey Catel in Norfolk and Geoffrey Cattel in Huntingdonshire. 4

Later in Yorkshire, the Yorkshire Poll Tax Rolls of 1379 include: Thomas Chetill; and Johannes Chetel. 3

Again in Yorkshire, we found John Cattle in 1653, John Cattell in 1683, and John Cattall in 1707, all listed as Freemen of York. 4

"The name of Cattell is now well established around Birmingham: it is also found in the contiguous county of Oxford. Six hundred years ago it occurred as Catel and Katel in Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Hunts, Norfolk, and Lincolnshire." 5

Early History of the Cattel family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Cattel research. Another 237 words (17 lines of text) covering the years 1275, 1279, 1500, 1530, 1561, 1653, 1683, 1707, 1773, 1780, 1781, 1787, 1790, 1792, 1802, 1810 and 1814 are included under the topic Early Cattel History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Cattel Spelling Variations

Only recently has spelling become standardized in the English language. As the English language evolved in the Middle Ages, the spelling of names changed also. The name Cattel has undergone many spelling variations, including Cattell, Cattle, Catel, Cattall, Catell, Cattelle and many more.

Early Notables of the Cattel family

Notables of this surname at this time include: Geoffrey Catel, a prominent 13th century landholder in Huntingdonshire.Back in France, where some of the family remained, Charles Simon Catel, born June 1773 at l'Aigle (Orne); began his studies very early under Sacchini, Gobert, and Gossec, in the 'Ecole royale de chant et de déclamation,' at Paris. In 1787 he was made accompanist and 'professeur-adjoint' of the School, and in 1790 accompanist at the Opera. The same year he became chief, conjointly with Gossec, of the band of the Garde Nationale, for which he wrote a vast quantity of military music, which was...
Another 106 words (8 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Cattel Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.


United States Cattel migration to the United States +

To escape the unstable social climate in England of this time, many families boarded ships for the New World with the hope of finding land, opportunity, and greater religious and political freedom. Although the voyages were expensive, crowded, and difficult, those families that arrived often found greater opportunities and freedoms than they could have experienced at home. Many of those families went on to make significant contributions to the rapidly developing colonies in which they settled. Early North American records indicate many people bearing the name Cattel were among those contributors:

Cattel Settlers in United States in the 18th Century
  • Peter, Cattel Jr., who landed in Georgia in 1741 6


  1. Lower, Mark Anthony, Patronymica Britannica, A Dictionary of Family Names of the United Kingdom. London: John Russel Smith, 1860. Print.
  2. Rye, Walter, A History of Norfolk. London: Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster Row, 1885. Print
  3. Bardsley, C.W, A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames: With Special American Instances. Wiltshire: Heraldry Today, 1901. Print. (ISBN 0-900455-44-6)
  4. Reaney, P.H and R.M. Wilson, A Dictionary of English Surnames. London: Routledge, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-415-05737-X)
  5. Guppy, Henry Brougham, Homes of Family Names in Great Britain. 1890. Print.
  6. Filby, P. William, Meyer, Mary K., Passenger and immigration lists index : a guide to published arrival records of about 500,000 passengers who came to the United States and Canada in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 1982-1985 Cumulated Supplements in Four Volumes Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., 1985, Print (ISBN 0-8103-1795-8)


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