This name appears on record in church registers of Jersey, (The Channel Islands), from the late 17th Century which indicates that it is a French Huguenot introduction. Several thousand Huguenot refugees left France to avoid religious persecutions prior to, and following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, by Louis 14, and settled in England, Ireland, The Channel Islands and elsewhere. This name is believed to be a diminutive form of the French "buse", a bird of prey of the falcon family. A Coat of Arms granted to the Busnel family of Brittany is recorded heraldically in Riestap's "Armorial General" and depicts a black buzzard on a silver shield. On January 31st 1690, Richard Buesnel and Jeanne Aubin were married in St. Saviour, Jersey, and in 1713, Clement Buesnel married a Marquerite Estur there. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Clement Buesnel, (marriage to Madeleine Vivian), which was dated May 20th 1685, St. Saviour, Jersey, during the reign of King Charles 2, The Merry Monarch, 1660 - 1685. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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