Origin of the name FORMER Back

Origin

BOWES : This surname, according to Grose, originated as follows : about the time of the Conqueror, there was a town (on the site of the Castle of Bowes), which the tradition of the family states, was burned. It then belonged to the Earls of Brittany and Richmond. The castle was built, as Mr. Horseley thinks, out of the ruins of the Roman Fortress, by Alan Niger, the second earl of that title, who, it is said, placed therein William, his relation, with five hundred archers to defend it against some insurgents in Cambridge and Westmorland confederated with the Scots, giving him for the device of his standard the arms of Brittany, with three bows and a bundle of arrows, whence both the castle and the commander derived their names; the former being called Bowes Castle, and the latter, William de Arcubus, or William Bowes.

POWELL : A contraction of the Welsh Ap Howell, the son of Howell. It may also be deduced from Paul, of which it was a former orthography: After the text of Crist, and Powel, and Jon. Wright's Chaucer.

Origin of name provided by Jean Tosti

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Map

Geographic distribution of the 1517 individuals with the name FORMER on Geneanet.

This last name in the family trees

See below the Geneanet members' family trees which contain the last name FORMER