This unusual and interesting name has its origins in the medieval male personal name 'Gandelyn', of unknown derivation but well recorded up to the 16th Century. There was a popular ballad in the 13th Century called 'robyn and Gandeleyn', the 'Robyn' being the legendary Robin Hood of the late 12th Century, and in the 16th Century 'Lytell Geste of Robin Hode' the following lines appear: 'Gandeleyn bent his goode bowe, and set therein a flo'. The surname is recorded in various forms in the modern idiom, as shown by the following examples of the development of the name: 'Canland' (1643), 'Candelin' (1795), 'Candling', 1797, 'Candline' 1808 and 'Candland' 1838. One 'James Candlin' married 'Sarah Abell' on the 29th March 1780, at St. Leonard's, Shoreditch. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Thomas Candelayn, which was dated 1379, The Poll Tax Records of Yorkshire, during the reign of King Richard II, Richard of Bordeaux, 1377 - 1399. 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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