This ancient and uncommon surname may be either of Anglo-Saxon or early medieval English origin, and is recorded first in the mid 12th Century. As an Anglo-Saxon surname, Rundall derives from the place called Rundale in the parish of Shoreham, in Kent; the place is so called from the Olde English pre 7th Century "rum(ig)", roomy, spacious, with "dael", valley. Locational surnames, such as this, were originally acquired by those who left their birthplace to settle in another area, and took their village name as a means of identification. One Thomas de Rundal was recorded in the Kent Hundred Rolls of 1275. The second possible origin of the name Rundall, also found as Rundle and Rundell, is from a medieval nickname for a person with a noticeably round face or figure, derived from the Middle English and Old French "rundel, rondel", from "rond, rund", round. Early English examples of the surname include the marriage of Lewyse Rundalle and Jone Lyans at Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, on July 15th 1546, and the marriage of Joan Rundall and John Thomas at St. Alphage, Greenwich, London, on October 5th 1619. One Edward Rundall was a 17th Century emigrant to the American Colonies, being listed as a landowner in St. Michael's Parish, Barbados, in 1680. In New York, Shadrach, son of Shadrach and Pheba Broun, was born on July 18th 1804, in Peekskill, Westchester. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Richard Rundel, which was dated circa 1170, in "Documents relating to the Danelaw", Leicestershire, during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. 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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