BOSWELL members around the world

BOSWELL Family History

Recorded in several forms incling Boswell, Buswell, Busswell and Baswell, this is an Anglo-Scottish medieval surname, but unusually perhaps, of French locational origins. It is a name that was introduced by a follwer of Duke William of Normandy after the Invasion of England in 1066, and later into Scotland. It originates from the town of Beuzeville, in the department of Seine Martime, Normandy. The placename means "the village or settlement of Beuze", the derivation being from the Old French personal name "Beuze", itself of Germanic orign from "boese" or "bose", meaning "reckless", plus "ville", meaning settlement or village. In Britain the final element has over the years become transposed, because of the more familiar English place name ending of "well", originally describing a spring or mountain stream...