Maxwell Family Tree research resources

Research the background of the Maxwell Family Tree using the resources below. We hope you find these sites useful whilst you are researching your Family Tree !

Did you know that in the 1881 UK census there were 7116 people with the Maxwell surname? In that year Maxwell was ranked number 572 for popularity in the UK.

"Local: from the lands of Macchnswell, now Maxwell, in Dumfriesshire. The family are descended from Herbert de Macchuswell, temp. Malcolm IV. "_{(The origin and signification of Scottish surnames. Clifford Stanley Sims, 1862)}

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"MAXWELL. This surname, from the form (Maccusville) in which it appears in records of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, is commonly thought to be of Norman origin. The name, however, is Old English, and derived from a salmon pool on the Tweed, near Kelso Bridge, still locally known as " Maxwheel. Maccus, son of Undewyn, a Saxon lord, in the reign of David I, obtained a grant of land (now called Springwood) on the Tweed before 1150 (Morton, p. 16), and from the fishery attached thereto, called Maccus's Wiel (Old English (Anglo-Saxon) wael, a pool, whirlpool), the lands obtained their name. (Camden, Britannia, ed. 1695, p. 909, says the inhabitants of Galloway follow fishing, and that about September they caught "an incredible number of eels in their Weeles," excipvlus). The place name Maxton in Roxburghshire may be named from the same Maccus. Maccus filius Undwain witnessed David's great charter to Melrose, a. 1153 (Nat. MSS., i, 17). Herbert granted a charter of Macchuswel to the Abbey of Kelso before 1159 (Kelso, 2), and witnessed several charters by William the Lion. John de Maccuswell filius Herbert, vicecomes, witnessed a charter by Bernard de Haudene to Kelso, c. 1210 (Kelso, 213), charters by William the Lion (RAA., i, 71, 83bis), and a Moray charter of 1225 (REM., p. 461). In 1226 Johannes de Makeswell witnessed a charter by Alexander n concerning the levying of tolls at the cross of Schedenestun, now Shettleston (REG., p. 114). Eymer de Mackisuuell was sheriff of Peebles, 1262 (Peebles, p. 4), and is recorded as camerarius to Alexander m in 1260 (REA., i, p. 27). The Maxwells first appear as landowners in Wigtownshire about 1481 (Agnew, i, p. 284). Perhaps the best known of the name was the late Sir Herbert Eustace Maxwell. Lawrence Maxwell (1853-1927), 0 solicitor-general of the United States, 1893-1895, was born in Glasgow. Mackeswal 1223, Makiswel 1409, Makiswell 1414, Makkiswell 1265, Maligussol (in a papal doc.) 1431, Maxuel 1424 and 1701, Maxvall 1583, Maxvile 1407, Maxwaile and Maxwale 1452, Maxweell 1661. "_{(The surnames of Scotland. George Fraser Black, 1866-1948)}

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