This interesting surname with the spellings of Thurlow and Thurloe, and the dialectals Trillo and Trillow, is of English locational origins. It derives from the villages known as Great and Little Thurlow in the county of Suffolk. The placename is recorded as "Tridlauua" in the Domesday Book of 1086, from the Olde English pre 7th Century "thryth" meaning council or assembly, plus "hlaw" a hill; hence "assembly hill". The first element can also translate as deliberation for the Olde English word "thribe". The surname is first recorded in the latter half of the 13th Century (see below), and an early example is that of John de Thrillowe, in the Hundred Rolls of Cambridgeshire for the year 1278. Recordings of the surname taken from the later authentic church registers include: the christening of Mary, daughter of Edmund Thurlow, which took place on August 12th 1591, at St. Botolphs church, Bishopsgate, and the marriage of Maudlin Thurloe and William Griffin which took place on November 25th 1623, at St. Gregory by St. Pauls, city of London. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Matilda de Threlowe, which was dated 1273, in the "Hundred Rolls of Cambridgeshire", during the reign of King Edward 1, known as "The Hammer of the Scots", 1272 - 1307. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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