Samuel Stowell

​​In England the name was traditionally spelled either "Stawell” or "Stowell", which are still in use today. In America, Stoel, is a common variation.

From "Stowell Genealogy", the following research notes are provided:

In 1913, I commissioned the well-known genealogist J. Gardner Bartlett to search in England for the ancestors of Samuel Stowell, but the "World War so completely paralyzed all such efforts that he was compelled to give up and return to America in 1915, before he had completed the examination. While he covered most of the ground, there is still much to be examined. His report herewith shows what records he examined, so that anyone who desires in the future to resume the search can take it up where he left off and thus avoid duplication.

My Dear Mr. Stowell:

The following sources were examined during a search in 1914 and 1915 for the English ancestry of Samuel Stowell: Lists were made of all Stowell wills to the year 1690 in the Prerogative Court of Canterbuiy and in all the local Probate Courts covering the Counties of Beds, Berks, Bucks, Cambridge, Cheshire, Derby, Devon, Dorset, Essex, Gloucester, Hants, Herts, Hunts, Kent, Lancaster, Leicester, Lincoln, Norfolk, Northampton, Nottingham, Oxford, Rutland, Somerset (Wells and Taunton), Stafford, Suffolk (Bury St. Edmunds, Ipswich and Norwich), Surrey, Sussex, Warwick, Wiltshire, Worcester and York. Abstracts were made of all the Stowell Wills in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and of the Somerset Wills at Wells and Taunton; the few Stowell Wills found in all the other Courts were read but not abstracted. No Samuel Stowell was found in any of these wills. Sixteen Stowell suits were found in the Star Chamber Courts between 1558 and 1603. These were examined but no mention of a Samuel Stowell was found. About 100 Stowell suits were found in the Court of Chancery between 1558 and 1714; these were all examined, but no Samuel Stowell was found. In the Court of Request from 1603 to 1625 no Stowell suit was found. The Parish Registers of Meare and Glastonbury were examined. No Stowell item was found although there was a John Stowell on the subsidy or tax list of 1628 at Meare. As the Stowell family was located principally in Somersetshire, I have the theory that Samuel Stowell of Hingham, Mass., was brought over from England by some relatives, not of his family name, who came from Somersetshire and settled in Hingham, like the Otis, Gill, Lane, Frye and some other families, but I was not able to find proof to establish this theory.

J. Gardner Bartlett.

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At the Stowell Family Association Annual Meeting, 1925, Charles Henry Stowell gives the following lineage of Samuel Stowell: "David Stowell, b. 1441; Thomas, b. 1466; Edmund, b. 1492; John, b. 1523; Samuel, b. 1581; and Samuel, b. abt. 1620, d. 1683". [Link] Did he omit a generation between John and Samuel?