Brief Life History of William
When William Cowley was christened on 4 October 1792, in German, Isle of Man, his father, William Cowley, was 44 and his mother, Alice Kelly, was 26.
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Family Time Line
Sources (1)
- Wm Cowley, "Isle of Man Parish Registers, 1598-2009"
Parents and Siblings
Siblings (6)
+1 More Child
World Events (3)
1797
"The Statute Laws of the Isle of Man" by C. Briscoe are published.
1821
Census gave Island population of 40,081.
1825
Potato riots caused by imposition of tithes.
Name Meaning
English: habitational name from any of various places called Cowley. One in Gloucestershire is named with Old English cū ‘cow’ + lēah ‘woodland clearing’; two in Derbyshire have Old English col ‘(char)coal’ as the first element; and one near London is from Old English cofa ‘shelter, bay’ (see Cove ) or the personal name Cofa. The largest group, however, with examples in Buckinghamshire, Devon, Oxfordshire, and Staffordshire, were apparently named as ‘the wood or clearing of Cufa’; however, in view of the number of places called with this element, it is possible that it conceals a topographic term as well as a personal name.
Irish: shortened form of Macaulay (see McCauley ).
Manx: shortened form of Gaelic Mac Amhlaoibh ‘son of Amhlaoibh’ (a Gaelicized form of Old Norse Óláfr). For an alternative Manx form of the same patronymic see Callow .
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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