This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of Churchill,' parishes in the Dioceses of Bath and Wells, Gloucestershire and Bristol, Oxford, and Worcester.

Richard de Churchulle, Somerset, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Nicholas de Churchhull, Somerset, 1 Edward III: Kirby's Quest.

1599. Edward Goodyer and Alice Churchill (Dorset): Marriage Lic. (London).

1751. Married — Cornelius Allen and Ann Churchill: St. George, Hanover Square.

(English) Dweller at the Church-Hill [Old English cirice + hyll]

Dweller on, or near, the church hill; one who came from Churchill (church hill), the name of several places in England.

Kelham makes Roger de Corcelles, a great Domesd. tenant in the western counties, the ancestor of the Dukes of Marlborough. See Courcelle. Churchill has, however, a sufficiently English aspect, and as we find four parishes in different counties so called, we need hardly seek for a Norman origin.

Or De Corcelle. The Churchills of Dorset, ancestors of the great Duke of Marlborough, are traceable, by the ordinary heralds’ pedigrees, to the reign of Henry VII., bearing a lion ramp., debruised by a bendlet. Prior to this, they were of Devon and Somerset, still bearing the same arms (Pole, Devon). The C.s of Devon descended from Elias de Chirchille, t. Edw. I., who m. the heiress of Widworthy. In the same reign Richard de Churchulle occurs at Bruton and at Bath (Rot. Hundr. ii. 124; Anderson, Royal Geneal.). At the same time John de Corcelle, or Curcelle (the original form of Churchulle), occurs at Bruton (Rot. Hundr. ii. 124). Prior to this, Wandragesil de Curcelle is mentioned in Somerset, &c. (Rotuli Curiae Regis), c. 1198. His father, Hugh de Curcelle, held five-and-a-half fees from the barony of Totness, 1165 (Pole, 12); and in a preceding generation lived Roger de C., who was granted Frome, Somerset, by Henry I. (Rot. Hundr. ii. 136). The latter was descended from Hugo Pincerna, who witnessed charters in favour of St. Amand, Normandy, before the Conquest (Mon. i. 996). His son, William de Corcelle (Gall. Christ. xi. 64), was father of Roger de Corcelle, who, in 1086, held a great barony in Somerset, &c., but lost it on taking part with other barons against Henry I on his accession. He had brothers, Richard Pincerna or De Corcelle, Robert Pincerna, and Rainald, seated in Salop and Chester. His son, Roger de Corcelle, received a grant of the Hundred of Frome, Somerset, from Henry I., held by the service of one knight, where his descendants continued. Hugh de Corcelle, his son, above-mentioned, was living 1165 (Lib. Niger). The family of Walensis, or Wallace, in Scotland, was a branch of the Corcelles. See Wallace. From this house descended the victorious Duke of Marlborough.

From the French, de Curcelle; a personal name From Courcelles; a location name in France. Or Churchill; a location name in Somerset.

Churchill: perhaps in some instances may be an anglicizing of Courcelle in Seine-et-Oise.

The distinguished Dorset family of Churchill, whence sprang the Duke of Marlborough, resided at Mintern in the 16th and 17th centuries For Caines see under "Keynes.".