The name Camplin reached England in the great wave of migration following the Norman Conquest of 1066. The name Camplin is for a maker or seller of camel hair cloth. Looking back even further, we found the name was originally derived from the Anglo Norman French word camelin, which means camel.
The surname Camplin was first found in Norfolk, where they held a family seat from ancient times.
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Camplin research. Another 242 words (17 lines of text) covering the years 1273, 1400, 1401, 1500, 1627, 1664, 1674, 1679, 1790, 1791, and 1797 are included under the topic Early Camplin History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
It is only in the last few hundred years that the English language has been standardized. For that reason, Anglo-Norman surnames like Camplin are characterized by many spelling variations. Scribes and monks in the Middle Ages spelled names they sounded, so it is common to find several variations that refer to a single person. As the English language changed and incorporated elements of other European languages such as Norman French and Latin, even literate people regularly changed the spelling of their names. The variations of the name Camplin include Camplin, Campelin, Camplyon, Camplyn, Camplen, Camplinge and many more.
More information is included under the topic Early Camplin Notables in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Faced with the chaos present in England at that time, many English families looked towards the open frontiers of the New World with its opportunities to escape oppression and starvation. People migrated to North America, as well as Australia and Ireland in droves, paying exorbitant rates for passages in cramped, unsafe ships. Many of the settlers did not make the long passage alive, but those who did see the shores of North America were welcomed with great opportunity. Many of the families that came from England went on to make essential contributions to the emerging nations of Canada and the United States. Some of the first immigrants to cross the Atlantic and come to North America carried the name Camplin, or a variant listed above: