Fuggles – Origins of the Name

I’ve managed to track down several sources of information so far but I’d be very pleased to hear of more.

The book “A Dictionary of British Surnames” by P H Reaney groups Fuggle and Fuggles with Fowle for which the entry reads:-

Fowle, Fowles, Fowell, Fowells, Fowls, Fuggle, Fuggles, Vowles, Vowell, Vowells, Vowels, Vowels
Fugel 1066 Winton (Ha); Fugel de Hoilanda 1177 P (Y); Wuland Fugel P (K); Robert (le) Fugel 1186-7 (Somerset); William le Fowl 1271 FFC; Agnes Foweles, Nicolas le Fowel 1275 SRWi; Roger Fogel 1296 SRSx; Nicolas Vogel 1327 SRSo; William Vowell 1578 Oxon; Thomas Fuggill 1632 YWilts; William Fugghill 1685 ib.
OE Fugel, from OE fugol ‘fowl, bird’, used both as a personal name and a nickname. The southern form survives in Vuggles Fm (Sussex).

(The above is quoted verbatim – unfortunately I do not know the meaning of all the abbreviations.)

Frank Fuggle of Whistable has done extensive family history research and has traced his ancestry back to Hergasil Vogel 1068. Hergasil and a brother Frank has not been able to trace yet were mercanaries who were given land in the Sevenoaks and/or Tenterden areas by William the Conquerer. Frank also told me that Vogel is dutch for bird. Vogel became ffuggle then Fuggle. The Fuggle family motto is “En Fait Passo” (apparently a very old version of Latin that translates as “In Faith Ready”).

Frank has been advised by a professional genealogist that it is likely that when the clergy carried out the early census they asked “Who lives here?” and the reply would have been “The Fuggles”. So that is what the clergy wrote down – adding the ‘s’ in some cases. Of course, very few people could read or write then. I believe that the ‘s’ was often added or removed when records were transcribed. For example, the birth of my grandfather, William, in 1862 was recorded as Fuggle, not Fuggles although his marriage and death were recorded as Fuggles while his father’s marriage was recorded as Fuggle but his death as Fuggles.

Mary George, whose husband’s grandfather’s cousin, Frederick, married Saran Ann Fuggles, tells me that the Huguenot name originated with Flemish weavers who settled in Kent, the original name Fuggle or Fugle meaning bird of flight.

So there you have it! I’m not sure whether Frank and Mary’s information tie up. If you have an opinion on this or any other information on the origins of the name, please email me.