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I have corresponded with hundreds of Grenfells around the world in the
last twelve years and received numerous explanations as to the origin
of that name. Dan Grenfell, a very distant cousin living in Cornwall
says that his grandmother found her family going back to an Italian
family, the "De Grevilles". They landed on the shores of Cornwall some
400 years ago. Pascoe Grenfell, Sir Wilfred's youngest son, who helped
my daughter, Jessie, with a project on Sir Wilfred (we'll attend to him
later) sent me an extensive family tree of his own doing which showed
the entire clan paddling over from France in the 900's. He mentions
Rollo, Duke of Normandy at that time, as the adventuresome soul who
settled in Cornwall.
The problem is in the
spelling of the name. I have records showing that it has been spelled
(alternately through generations in many cases: Grenfeld, Grenvield,
Grenville, Greenfield, Grenfield, Greindfield and Granville. The latter
shows up across the seventeenth and eighteenth century. It would appear
that the spelling was a matter of taste. This was not uncommon back
then, as many people were illiterate anyway, and the spelling of their
names would have been inconsequential.
As to the Rowe family, I
cannot track back the origins of this name too far. It shows up as
Rowe, Row, and Roe. It is a common name worldwide and very common in
both St. Just in Penwith, St. Ives and Paul, the three main parishes
our family came from.
The Cowlings may well have
hailed from Cowling, Kent. Though Kent is on the opposite side of
Britain, it is on the Channel facing. Cowling is a small fishing
village. The Cowlings to whom we are most directly related spelled it
Cowlin.
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