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This project is an
attempt to chart the descendants of James Powell
& Penelope Dyer of London, England. James first
appears in 1783 in Westminster, London, where he
married Penelope, from Shoreditch, London. James spent the next
few years living in London before moving south of the Thames and
settling in what is today Southwark, London. James' three known
surviving sons
(he had no known daughters) remained in the Lambeth-Southwark district.
The oldest of the three emigrated to Australia in 1852, settling first
on the Ballarat goldfields in Victoria (just in time for the Eureka
Rebellion!) and then moving to Melbourne.
The middle son died childless. The third surviving son, George, who
appears to have remained in the Southwark-Lambeth district his whole
life, had two known sons, both of whom emigrated to Australia in the
late 1850s, one settling in Victoria and the other in South Australia.
The chart linked above labelled "James Powell: London &
Australia"
charts this family.
In addition to charting the descendants of James, I
have also undertaken a one-name study on the Powell's of South
Australia. The results of this research can be found in the chart,
linked above, "Other Powell's of South Australia".
An unrelated Powell family, "A Powell Family of Wales
& Canada", is being hosted for a friend.
The "Sources"
page is
a master list of all sources for the various charts listed
above.
If you are a descendent of James & Penelope (or have
researched this family), please email
me if
you wish to share information. If you are connected to an unrelated
Powell family with South Australian connections and would like
to
submit corrections, additions or a previously unlisted family,
please email
me.
Printing
instructions:
This document contains formatting which is incompatible with printing.
To print use a text editor (eg: notepad) to remove all occurrences of
"<fieldset>" and "</fieldset>" &
then print, or email
for a printable pdf. Please
note that
most of these files are quite large. The South Australian Powell's
chart is about 600K and with graphics, the James Powell chart is
almost 9M. Please be patient while the files download! |
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It
is widely held that the surname Powell is of Welsh origin. This is,
however, a fallacy. Many Powell's do
have a Welsh origin however just as many, if not more, originate
elsewhere. The Welsh 'Powell' is derived from the Welsh forename
'Hywel' (or Hoel). In Welsh names the
presence of 'Ap' corresponds with the Scottish 'Mac', both meaning 'son
of'. The son of Hywel would then be referred to as 'ap-Hywel'
or 'ap-Howell'. Hywel was a popular Welsh male forename, named after a
famous 10th Century Welsh King. Over the centuries Ap-Howell gradually
contracted into 'Powell'. Early references to a Welsh Powell
include Griffith Powel or Powell (1561-1620), Principal of
Jesus College, Oxford, who was described as "third sonne of John ap
Hywel ap
John. Roger ap Howell, alias Powell, was named in a lawsuit in 1563.
Note that the Welsh lagged behind the English in adopting formal
surnames. The second possible origin of the surname is English and
derives from the given name Paul. Paul was a very uncommon
forename in England in the Middle Ages. More commonly it appeared as a
surname, usually a variation of Pawle. The Records for London (1279)
name a certain John as both 'Powel' and 'Paul'. In Scotland the surname
Paul had
been long established. There are many other examples of 'Powel' and
'Powell' from the 14th & 15th Centuries in the eastern English
counties which were derived from Pawle. Variations on the name Pawle
included Powell, Powle, Poul, Pole, Polle, Poole and Pulle.
Some English occurrences of the name were Flemish in origin, especially
in the eastern counties (and Scotland) - Powell was a not
uncommon surname in Flanders in the Middle Ages. From the 15th
to the 18th centuries there were many waves of immigrants to England
from Flanders. Dutch Powell's living in England can be dated back to at
least 1565 with John Powell, a Dutch merchant, who had settled in
Norwich. For Powell families with an Irish origin, the surname 'Powell'
was adopted as an alternative name when native Irish names
were prohibited. The original name would have Gilfoyle (Giolla Phoil),
'servant of St. Paul' and 'Powell' was seen as an acceptable
substitute. The name can also have been derived
from locations, such as Powhill in Co Cumberland. It is also possible
that families
living near pools could have acquired the name
accordingly. An early spelling for 'pools' was 'Powl' ('here
be ye bottomlesse powees', 1301). Examples of this
include Jordan de Powella (1184), Ralph atte Powel (1288) and
John de Powel (1339). From this it is clear that apart from those cases
where Powell is clearly of Welsh origin, it is impossible to
determine the origin of a particular Powell family, although DNA
testing may help determine whether a particular family was of Welsh,
Irish, Scottish, Dutch or English origin. The Powell DNA project
has (as of October 2010) 214 members, most of whom do not
trace ancestry back to the UK. Of those who do, 3 trace back to
locations in Ireland, 13 to locations in Scotland and 12 to locations
in England (with several more to "UK", no specific location). At this
stage this is probably too small a dataset to be statistically
meaningful to match possible origins.[Surname
Database, Baden-Powell
Family History, Powell
- Desmond Holden]
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