Show ContentsKettlewell History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Kettlewell is a name of ancient Anglo-Saxon origin and comes from the family once having lived in the town of Kettlewell in the North Yorkshire. Kettlewell is a topographic surname, which was given to a person who resided near a physical feature such as a hill, stream, church, or type of tree. Habitation names form the other broad category of surnames that were derived from place-names. They were derived from pre-existing names for towns, villages, parishes, or farmsteads. Other local names are derived from the names of houses, manors, estates, regions, and entire counties.

Early Origins of the Kettlewell family

The surname Kettlewell was first found in Yorkshire, at Kettlewell, a village in Upper Wharfedale, North Yorkshire, which dates back to the Domesday Book of 1086 where it was listed as Cheteleuuelle 1 and literally meant "spring or stream in a deep valley," having derived from the Old English words "cete" + "wella." 2 In 1686, Kettlewell and the neighbouring village Starbotton were almost destroyed in a flood.

Early History of the Kettlewell family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Kettlewell research. Another 147 words (10 lines of text) covering the years 1086, 1379, 1397, 1399, 1583, 1653 and 1695 are included under the topic Early Kettlewell History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Kettlewell 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 Kettlewell family name include Kettlewell, Kettlwell, Ketlewell, Kettelwell, Ketelwell, Ketelwelle, Ketelwel and many more.

Early Notables of the Kettlewell family

Distinguished members of the family include

  • John Kettlewell (1653-1695), of Yorkshire, writer and ordained deacon


Kettlewell 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 Kettlewell surname or a spelling variation of the name include:

Kettlewell Settlers in United States in the 17th Century
  • Henry Kettlewell, who arrived in Maryland in 1665 3
  • Mary Kettlewell, who landed in Maryland in 1674 3
Kettlewell Settlers in United States in the 19th Century
  • William Kettlewell, who sailed to Philadelphia in 1856

Kettlewell migration to Canada +

Some of the first settlers of this family name were:

Kettlewell Settlers in Canada in the 19th Century
  • Richard Kettlewell, who was registered in Elgin County, Ontario in 1872
  • George Kettlewell, who was living in Middlesex County, Ontario in 1877

Kettlewell migration to Australia +

Emigration to Australia followed the First Fleets of convicts, tradespeople and early settlers. Early immigrants include:

Kettlewell Settlers in Australia in the 19th Century

Contemporary Notables of the name Kettlewell (post 1700) +

  • Donald E. Kettlewell, American Republican politician, Candidate for West Virginia State House of Delegates from Marshall County, 1964 5
  • Ruth Kettlewell (1913-2007), English actress who was active from 1959 to 1995
  • Dame Marion Mildred Kettlewell DBE (b. 1914), British naval officer, Director of the Wrens (1966-1970)
  • Henry Bernard Davis Kettlewell (1907-1979), British geneticist, lepidopterist and medical doctor, known for Kettlewell's experiment, a study into light colored European peppered moths in the late 1940s and 1950s
  • Henry Kettlewell (1876-1963), English cricketer
  • Stuart Kettlewell (b. 1984), Scottish footballer

HMS Prince of Wales
  • Mr. John R Kettlewell, British Able Seaman, who sailed into battle on the HMS Prince of Wales (1941) and survived the sinking 6


  1. Williams, Dr Ann. And G.H. Martin, Eds., Domesday Book A Complete Translation. London: Penguin, 1992. Print. (ISBN 0-141-00523-8)
  2. Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
  3. 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)
  4. Convict Records Voyages to Australia (Retrieved 16th September 2020). Retrieved from https://convictrecords.com.au/ships/baring
  5. The Political Graveyard: Alphabetical Name Index. (Retrieved 2015, October 7) . Retrieved from http://politicalgraveyard.com/alpha/index.html
  6. HMS Prince of Wales Crew members. (Retrieved 2014, April 9) . Retrieved from http://www.forcez-survivors.org.uk/biographies/listprincecrew.html


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