This interesting and unusual name derives from the Medieval English and Old French "sendal", (ultimately from the Greek "sindon" meaning fine silk or winding sheet, shroud), and was originally given either as a metonymic occupational name to a merchant dealing in fine silk, or in some instances, as an occupational name to an undertaker. The surname is first recorded at the beginning of the 14th Century, (see below), and a John Sendale was noted in the 1374, "Calendar of pleas for the City of London". The following quotation from "English Trade in the Middle Ages" by L.F. Salzman reads, "Among the materials brought for Edward 1 in 1300, were sindon, or sendal, a silk cloth, at 16s. the yard". On December 21st 1561, one, Margery Sendall was christened in St. Dunstan's in The East, London, and on November 18th 1588, Edward Sendall married a Jane Angrave in St. Margaret's, Westminster. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Sendal, which was dated 1303, Documents relating to Feudal Aids, Suffolk, during the reign of King Edward 1, "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. 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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