Tuckwell

This interesting surname recorded in a wide range of spellings including Tackwell, Toqwell, Thackwell, Tickwill, Toxwell, Takewell, Takwell, Tuckwell, Tucwell and Tugwell, is English. It is of locational origin from one of the estimated three thousand villages and hamlets that have now disappeared from the maps in Britain in the past seven hundred years. The prime cause of these "disappearances" was the enforced "clearing" and dispersal of the former inhabitants to make way for sheep pastures at the height of the wool trade in the 14th Century. Natural causes such as the Black Death of 1348 also contributed to the lost village phenomenon. The component elements of the placename are the old English pre 7th Century personal name "Tocca" plus "wella" meaning a well, spring or stream; hence "Toca's stream". The surname is well recorded in the surviving registers of the diocese of Greater London and these examples include: Henry Tuckwell, who was christened at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, on December 20th 1562, Elizabeth Toxwell who married Joseph Barnes at St Georges, Mayfair, on January 26th 1729, and Mary Takwell, who married Francis Driver, at St Botolphs Bishopgate, on October 13th 1745. The first recorded spelling of the family name may be that of John Tuckwell, who married Alex Curtes, on October 26th 1559, at Castle Eaton, Wiltshire, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1st, "Good Queen Bess", 1558 - 1603. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.