Eells History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

Eells is a name whose history is connected to the ancient Anglo-Saxon tribes of Britain. The name is derived from when the Eells family once lived on an island. The surname Eells is derived from the Old French word isle, which means island and has become the modern French word île. The surname Eells belongs to the class of topographic surnames, which were given to people who resided near physical features such as hills, streams, churches, or types of trees. However, the name Eells may also be a patronymic surname derived from the Anglo-Saxon personal names Æl or Æthel.

Early Origins of the Eells family

The surname Eells was first found in Somerset where they held a family seat from very ancient times, some say well before the Norman Conquest and the arrival of Duke William at Hastings in 1066 A.D.

Early History of the Eells family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Eells research. Another 220 words (16 lines of text) covering the years 1320, 1338, 1679, 1683, 1688, 1703, 1713, 1715, 1716, 1721, 1727, 1734, 1735 and 1745 are included under the topic Early Eells History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Eells Spelling Variations

Sound was what guided spelling in the essentially pre-literate Middle Ages, so one person's name was often recorded under several variations during a single lifetime. Also, before the advent of the printing press and the first dictionaries, the English language was not standardized. Therefore, spelling variations were common, even among the names of the most literate people. Known variations of the Eells family name include Eyles, Eeles, Eels, Eylers and others.

Early Notables of the Eells family

Notables of the family at this time include Sir John Eyles, Lord Mayor of London; John Eyles (died 1703), of Great St. Helens, London and Southbroom, near Devizes, Wiltshire, an English politician, Member of the Parliament for Devizes in 1679; Sir Francis Eyles, 1st Baronet (died 1716), Governor of the Bank of England; and his son, Sir John Eyles, 2nd Baronet (1683-1745) of Gidea Hall, Essex, a British financier. He served as a director of the Bank of...
Another 77 words (6 lines of text) are included under the topic Early Eells Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Eells Ranking

In the United States, the name Eells is the 10,237^th most popular surname with an estimated 2,487 people with that name. 1

Eells migration to the United States +

For political, religious, and economic reasons, thousands of English families boarded ships for Ireland, Canada, the America colonies, and many of smaller tropical colonies in the hope of finding better lives abroad. Although the passage on the cramped, dank ships caused many to arrive in the New World diseased and starving, those families that survived the trip often went on to make valuable contributions to those new societies to which they arrived. Early immigrants bearing the Eells surname or a spelling variation of the name include:

Eells Settlers in United States in the 17th Century

John Eells, who arrived in Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1629 2

Contemporary Notables of the name Eells (post 1700) +

Stillman Witt Eells (1873-1937), American politician, U.S. Vice Consul in Hamilton, 1917-18; U.S. Consul in Mombasa, 1918; Nairobi, 1918-21; Funchal, 1922-25; Leeds, 1925-27; Colombo, 1929; Cardiff, 1932 3
Samuel Eells, American politician, Member of New York State Assembly from Delaware County, 1842 3
Cushing Eells, American politician, Member of Connecticut State House of Representatives from Norwich, 1826 3

Citations +

"What are the 5,000 Most Common Last Names in the U.S.?". NameCensus.com, https://namecensus.com/last-names/
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)
The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2016, January 14) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html