Before we get to the POWELL name, we need to take a little time to talk about the English language as it is a composite language made up of many British and European languages. As a language, English as we know it today is only a little over five hundred years old and is still evolving and changing. In the beginning there were a multitude of languages and different dialects spoken in the British Isles. Among them was Welsh, Cornish, Breton, Celtic, Pictish, Gaelic, etc. and then the Romans came and brought Latin, but more importantly they also brought the Roman alphabet, which was the first written language in Britain and we still use the Roman alphabet today.
After the Romans, came the Anglo-Sextons, Germans, then the Vikings, and then the French Normans and other small ethnic groups came and brought their languages, and with time some words from each of the language groups were adopted and others fell out of use, thus bring about what was known as old English.
As several early English Kings were born in France, they spook French and used French and/or Latin scribes to write official documents. This practice continued up until Henry the 8th became king. Although Henry was born in Wales, he became King of England, Lord King of Ireland, Prince of Wales, and Duke of Cornwall. As King of England, he wanted to unite the British Isles into one country, or at least a union of countries. In order to do this, he decided that they all needed to speak, read and write the same language (English), what we now call Middle English and be ruled by one set of laws. So, he had Parliament write the Welsh Acts of Union.
You must remember that when you read old or middle English at that time there were no rules. While King Henry VIII made English the official language of British Isles, in 1536, there were still no rules on how to spell words or use them. Prior to the 16th century people spelled words phonically as there were no rules for spelling words in the British Isles. Henry also commissioned the first official English translation of the bible, the “Great Bible” in 1539 and it was to be read in church rather than the Latin version.
A little later in 1650 Queen Elizabeth commissioned another English version of the bible called the “Bishops’ Bible”. Next came King James I, who was the first college educated English king. He commissioned his own English translation of the Holy Bible and along with it a dictionary of bible words and terms in 1611, called the “King James Holy Bible”. This is still the most widely read bible in the English language. With each rewriting of the bible the English became more and more standardized, it showed a need for a dictionary.
The first excepted work on English grammar began in the late sixteenth century with the publishing of the “Pamphlet for Grammar” by William Bullokar in 1589. While there were a few attempts at writing a dictionary early on, it was not until Samuel Johnson wrote the first really excepted English language dictionary which was called “Johnson’s Dictionary”, published on April 15, 1775. So, as you see the English language is only a little over four hundred years old and it is still changing with new words being added every year and old ones falling out of use. Also, in the 1500’s we added the letters “u” and “j”, changing the letter count from 24 to 26. Even in my 82 years of life the way we write a cursive “r” and a cursive “t” at the end of a word has changed.
THE WELSH ACTS OF UNION
So, from 1536 to 1543 the English Parliament under the direction of King Henry VIII began writing a series of laws to more closely unite the two countries. One of the first was to annex Wales to England, which at the time was an independent principality. Welsh courts were to use English criminal law. English was to be the legal language of Wales and you must speak, read and write English to hold public office or to hold a government job, and for Wales to have representation in Parliament. All the people of the British Isles would be one people, speaking one langue and living under on set of laws. The same was done later for Scotland and Ireland when they were annexed.
These rules also applied to England herself, so all the people of the British Isles were supposed to adopt English-style surnames base on fixed, heredity, more or less like the English had been doing for some time. The traditional patronymic system of names was to be dropped, so one of the implications was names like William ap Howell became William Powell, a more English sounding name. but it took quite some time as the old system didn’t die out completely until the late 17th and early 18th century. After all no one likes changing their name, unless the law is looking for them. This also meant that not only Welsh scribes would be done away with but also French and Latin scribes, English would be the name of the game from now on. (ap = son of, and verch = daughter of)
Merrian-Webster: A patronymic, or patronym, is generally formed by adding a prefix or suffix to a name. Thus, a few centuries ago, the male patronymic of Patrick was Fitzpatrick (“Patrick’s son”), that of Peter was Peterson or Petersen, that of Donald was MacDonald or McDonald, and that of Hernando was Hernández. Today, of course, each of these is an ordinary family name, or surname. In Russia, both a patronymic and a surname are still used; in the name Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, for example, Ilyich is a patronymic meaning “son of Ilya”.
THE POWELL SURNAME
The Powell, surname that we are researching is considered by many to be of Welsh origin, but this is not true as the Welsh did not have surnames per-say until after the Welsh Acts of Union. The names Poole, Powle, Powel and Powell were already in use in England for some time before Thomas ap Howel became known as Thomas Powell of Castle Madoc. The name Howel became Powell because of the Acts of Union as mentioned above.
Yes, the name Powel or Powle may have been used in Wales before the 16th century but not as a Welsh surname, as the Welsh people did not use sir names (with maybe a few exceptions) until 1536, they used the patronymic system of naming their children. According to English records there was a Henry Powell living in London and a Geoffrey Powell living in Cambridge as early as 1273.
This is how Thomas ap Howel ap Gwilym ap Howel, of the house of Brecon, became known as Thomas Powell of Brecon. In compliance with the new rules of the day, Thomas chose to drop the “a” keep the “p” drop the “H” and add an “l” to the end, making Thomas Powell. Some others with the name ap Howel or Howell just dropped the “ap”. This was not inclusive to the name Howel, as most all Welsh names changed over the next hundred years to comply with the Acts of Union. Names like ap Hugh, became Hugh or Pugh, and so on and so forth with most other names.
The name Powell that we see today comes from several different sources and different families throughout the British Isles, each with its own origin and history. But over the years many of these names like Pool, Poole,Poule, Powle, Powel, Howel, Hywel and so forth, that sounded somewhat alike have come to be spelled Powell. Prior to the 16th century people spelled words phonically as there were no rules for spelling in the British Isles. You could find two or three people in the same family, each spelling their name differently than the others. Remember also prior to the 16th century the English alphabet only had 24 letters and only 3 vowels as compared to the 26 letters with 5 vowels that we use today. A good example of this is to go on line and find a copy of Captain John Smith’s book, “The Generall Historie of Virginia” etc. in the middle English.
THE FIRST WELSH POWELL?
Who was the first Welsh Powell? Many people claim that William ap Howel of Bevalt, said to be born in 1550, was the first one in the “Castle Madoc” family to use the new spelling, spelling his name William Powel, or so the story goes. The trouble with this statement is, that he is from Bevalt, and not from Brecon. Then there was William Powell of Bwalt, born 1530 in Cradley, Hereford, England. He was the son of John Powell born 1490 also in Cradley. Was William of Bewalt, 1530 and William of Bevalt, 1550 the same person or two different people? Consider that hand written 3’s and 5’s are often confused, and “v”s and “w”s were often inter changed in those days. If they are two different people, where is Bevalt located? I have been unable to find any record of such a place. At any rate one and/or both are English, and not Welsh. Also, while looking through some history books and genealogy files I have found the name Powelin English history as far back as the 14th century, so the sir-name Powel cannot be of Welsh origin in the1530’s. Do not forget Thomas mentioned above.
There is a book, “Genealogy of the Powells’ of Castle Madoc, Brecon, South Wales and the Cadet Branches of Philadelphia, PA”, written in the late 1800’s by Washington Bleddyn Powell. This is the most complete book on the Powells’ of the Castle Madoc family and it is heavily documented. It covers the Powells’ from their earliest ancestors in 262 A.D. up thru when W. B. Powell’s grandfather, William Powell, Sr. who immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1729 and is the only Powell from Castle Madoc in Brecon Wales documented to have come to America. On page 74 in the book above, it says, “Thomas Powell was the first of his line who bore the patronymic Powell.” His old-style name was “Thomas ap Howell of Argoet ap Gwyllyn”. He would sometimes write his name as T’homas ap Howel Glln”.
SOME OTHER EARLY POWELLS
Here is one famous Powell of this early era that does not seem to show up in any one’s genealogy data base. TheReverend Dr. Edward Powell, (1478-1540) was a Welshman who became a Canon of Salisbury and a Fellow of Oriel. He was well known in Europe as the author of various treatises against Luther. He was also chosen by Queen Catherine of Aragon, wife of King Henry VIII, as one of her counselors. He was imprisoned by Henry VIII for refusing to sign the Act of Supremacy. Edward Powell, along with Thomas Abel, and Richard Featherstone were hanged, drawn, and quartered at Smithfield on July 30, 1540.
There was another famous Powell of this era that does not seem to show up in any one’s proven genealogy data base. His name seems to show up on a couple of conflicting data bases without any details, so it is imposable to tell if it is one person or two different ones, David Powell. Dr. David Powell of Ruabon, (1552-1598) was a Welshman who became Vicar of Ruabon, Denbighshire, Wales (North Wales). He took an unpublished manuscript on Welsh history translated by Humphrey Llwyd, made corrections and additions to it and in 1584 published it as “The History of Cambria” (Cambria is the old name for Wales). David also contributed to the writing of “Diverse Voyages Touching the Discovery of America”, by Reverend Richard Hakluyt. There are again some that claim that David was born in Castle Madoc, Brecon, Wales. The fact is there is a line of Powells that do come from Denbighshire, Wales and the records while not giving his birth place do indicate that he was from northern Wales. Dr David Powell did have a son who was born in Denbighshire, Wales, and he became a minister, like his father.
There was also an Englishman, Henry Powell, Esq. who is from this era and was married to Katherine Ann Herbert. Her mother was Ann Parr, sister to Katherine Parr, Queen of England and sixth wife of Henry VIII. They are said to have had a son named Stephen Powellborn about 1560. Many people seem to confuse him with Sir. Stephen Powle, below. They are two different people from two different families. A few people believe that Stephen Powell is the father of John Powell, Planter (but there is no proof of this, at this point it is just wishful thinking by someone), who came to Virginia in 1609 on the “Swallow” and later married Catherine Burgess. He was not John Powell the tailor who arrived in 1608 and died not long after he arrived in Jamestown. They came from two different families. John Powell 1608 was from a working-class family, while John Powell was from a well to do family. It was recorded that he was well educated and well-funded.
Then there is the family of Sir Stephen Powle (Powell) who was contemporary to this era and whose family line appears to have been in England for several generations by this time. Stephen was born about 1553 in Cranbrook, Great Ilford, Essex, England, as was his father Thomas, Jr. in 1513, and his grandfather Thomas, Sr. before that. Sir Stephen was knighted July 12, 1604 at Theobalds, he was also a member of the Virginia Company of London, but never went to Virginia. While he had two sons, both died before their first birthday. He died in May 26, 1630 leaving no heirs, thus bring to an end that family line. There does not appear to be any connection between him and the Powell family from Brecon, Wales.
This information taken from his bibliography: Sir Stephen Powle of Court and Country,
Memorabilia of a Government Agent for Queen Elizabeth I, Chancery Official, and English Country Gentleman. By Virginia F. Stern, Selinsgrove: Susquehanna University Press, London and Toronto: Associated University Presses (1992)
You will notice that some of the Welsh people named Powell above who were born 1535 were still living after 1535 and show there adult name.