This unusual name of English origin is locational from a place so called in Warwickshire. No recordings of this name, date before the 13th Century when the variant spellings Povele, Poveleye, Powelee, Povelee and Poleye are found. There is also a place called Pooley Bridge in Westmoreland, recorded in 1291 as Pulhou, and what is now known as Hunts Hall in Essex is shown as "Polheia". The derivation of all the various forms is from the Olde English pre 7th Century "pol", a pool, and the Olde Scandinavian "haugr", a hill, thus the dweller on the mound by a pool. In Allesley, Warwickshire one Thomas Pooley the infant and son of George Pooley the infant son of George Pooley was christened on the 23rd November 1587. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Walter de Polhey, which was dated 1248, in the "Feet of Fines, Essex," during the reign of King Henry 111, known as "The Frenchman", 1216 - 1272. 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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