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Name variants

Over the centuries there have been many variants of the name and include the following:

CAVILL / CAVIL / CAVELL / CAVEL / CAVILLE / CAVIELL / CAVIEL / CAVIELL
          COVELL  CAVVIL / CAVVEL / CAVALL / CAVLE / CAUVEL / CAVILE / KAVILL
         CAUILL / CAVEIL / CAVEILL / CAVELLE / CIVALL / CAVEAL / CABBLE / CABLE / CAFFIL /
          CASSIL / CEAVELL  CABELL / CARVELL / CARVILL / KAYVILLE / KAYVYLE /
 KAIVILL / CAVITH / CAVETH  CAVEATH / CAVIN / CAVETT /

 

This website concentrates  mainly on the variants CAVIL, CAVILL, CAVEL, CAVELL.

 

 

Origins of the name

When I first started researching my family name I always thought it was French, but then I found my particular variant didnt originally have the E on the end. And so I discovered that the name has two possible origins:  CAFELD - CA meaning “jackdaw” and “FELD” meaning “field”
. The “Cafeld” of King Eadgar's charter dated 959, is the tiny hamlet called CAVIL in East Yorkshire - “field” was changed to “ville”  (place) by the Normans.
In the Domesday Book it is known as “Cheuede”, the Norman scribe
substituting “u” for “f”, and omitting the “l”, and was part of the lands of the Bishop of Durham.

CAVIL is first recorded in English in 1548, with much the same meaning it has today - “to raise captious and frivolous objections” (to carp, criticise)
The Latin meaning of "calvus" is bald. (Oxford University Press)

 

In the old speech books of the North various meanings are given - casting or dividing by lots; a low, rough fellow; to refuse or carp. It is therefore difficult to be sure as to where the name is derived from.

 

Derivations and variations probably got accentuated by local accents and of course by local officials and enumerators  when the censuses and other official polls took place, both in the 19th  century and before - the names being written down and spelt how they sounded,

 

The hamlet of Cavil, Yorkshire

The present day hamlet of CAVIL is in the Parish of Eastrington (In 1852 - 6910 acres, pop. 3,580)on the A614 road, 2 miles north-east of Howden in East Yorkshire, (just north of the Humber Estuary) and now consists of two farms: Caville Hall Farm and one other, situated about two miles north-east from Howden.

 

In 1454 the grt-grt-granddaughter of Sir John Cavil, Knt, (who lived in the reign of Edward III) conveyed the manor in marriage to Robert Monckton, from whom the present Viscount Galway is descended. The lower part of the riginal hall was built of brick, while the upper part was of wood and plaster, and the roof made up of large flat tiles. In front there were two porches, one of 15 feet and the other of 6 feet square; it wasdefended by two moats and two drawbridges. Cavil Hall, long t he residence of the Cavils and the Moncktons, was demolished towards the close of the 18th century and rebuilt about 140 years ago.

The second hall, named Cavil / Caville Hall, was built over part of the old inner moat, which later caused severe subsidence, and was demolished in the 1950s. The present farm is now owned by an insurance company.

 

It is on the Ordnance Survey 1:2500 map series, on sheet SE 7630-7730; using this reference it can also be located on the tourist type 1:50,000 series maps;  The old O.S.County Series maps show it on Yorkshire Sheet 23-13, which is dated 1889. Extracts from this series should be available from the Ordnance Survey.

 

 

The earliest time the surname occurs is Thomas de KAIVILL, named in the Pipe Rolls of Richard I; 1190. This Thomas, with Roger and Richard, his brothers, witnessed the charter of Hugh de Puiset, Bishop Of Durham (1153-95), evidently dated at Howden. His son William is also on another charter of the same Bishop. Later, a Sir John de Kayvile, Knight, witnessed deeds dated about 1265, 1268, and 1284. (Yorks Arch. Journal, xi 68) John de Kayvyle, lord of Kayvyle, who with John de Kayvyle of Howden, witnessed an agreement of Bishop Richard with Master John de Snaynton, dated at Howden 1314. In all probability it was this John to whom Sir John de Hotham gave, with his daughter Amye, all his lands in the vill and territory of Birsay.

A Robert de Cavilla is mentioned in the Hundred Rolls of 1273 in the County of Lincoln.

In 1353 John Cavel was Rector of Sizeland in Norfolk (source: History of Norfolk)

During the reign of Edward 111 a Walter Cavel is listed in Somerset. (Kirby's Quest, p.110)
In 1454 the grt-grt-granddaughter of Sir John Cavil, Knt, (who lived in the reign of Edward III) conveyed the manor in marriage to Robert Monckton, from whom the present Viscount Galway is descended. The lower part of the original hall was built of brick, while the upper part was of wood and plaster, and the roof made up of large flat tiles. In front there were two porches, one of 15 feet and the other of 6 feet square; it was defended by two moats and two drawbridges. Long the residence of the Cavils and the Moncktons, it was demolished towards the close of the 18th century. The second hall, named Cavil / Caville Hall, was built over part of the old inner moat, which later caused severe subsidence, and was demolished in the 1950s. The present farm is now owned by an insurance company.