This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of the temple,' any sacred enclosure. Anglo-Saxon tempel; H.E. temple, from residence thereby.

Matilda du Temple, Oxfordshire, 1273. Hundred Rolls.

Petrus del Tempil, 1379: Poll Tax of Yorkshire.

P Matilda de Tempell, 1379: ibid.

1576. Leonard Temple, Oxfordshire: Register of the University of Oxford.

1634. William Chapman and Joane Temple: Marriage Lic. (London).

From the village of Temple in the parish of the same name in Midlothian, formerly the principal place of residence of the Knights Templars in Scotland. "The preceptories or priories of the Knights-Templars were often called Temples, and even manorial residences and estates belonging to them obtained the same appellation. The name consequently passed to tenant or bailiff of such a property ' (Lower, Patronymica Britannica). Agnes de Tempill held a land in the vill and territory of Elstanfurd in the constabulary of Haddington in 1429 (RMS., II, 124). Johannes Tempill had a remission for his share in burning the town of Dunbertane in 1489 (Lennox, II, p. 133). William Tempill, canon of the Collegiate Church of Holy Trinity, Edinburgh, appears frequently in record in the first half oi the sixteenth century (Soltre).

(Anglo-Latin and Anglo-French-Latin) Dweller in or by a Religious House, esp. a Precep- TORY OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS [Old English temp(e)l; Latin templ-um, whence also French temple] For example, at Temple Bruer, Lincs, “are the ruins of a Knights Templars’ preceptory, founded before 1185”; Temple Newsham, W. Yorks, "was a Knights Templars’ preceptory’’; the Manor of Temple Sowerby, Westmd., “was given by the Viponts to the Knights Templars”; the Knights Templars possessed Temple Bryan, co. Cork, in the 14th cent.

Les localités qui portent le nom de le Temple sont d'anciennes préceptoreries dépendant de l’ordre du Temple.—Cocheris, Noms de Lieu, p. 165.

A gentil maunciple [purveyor] was ther ois. temple.—Chaucer, Prol. Cant. Tales,567.

(Celtic-Latin) Dweller by a Church [Irish and Gaelic teampull; Latin templ-um, a temple]

(English) Dweller in, or near, a religious house of the Knights Templars; descendant of Temple, a name sometimes given a foundling abandoned in a temple.

The preceptories or priories of the Knights-Templars were often called Temples, as Temple-Bruer, Temple-Newsham, &c., and even manorial residences and estates, belonging to them, obtained the same dignified appellation. The tenant or bailiff of such a property was sometimes known by the surname At-Temple, or Templeman; for example at Sompting, co. Sussex, where this order possessed lands, Peter at Temple is named in the Nona Return of 1341. In the previous century, De Temple, Du Temple, Le Templer, &c., occurin H.R.

From the manor of Temple, in Wellesborough, Leicestershire, which name was given by the old Earl of Leicester, one of the Knights Templars, who usually gave the name of Temple to their lands.

From Temple, near Caen, Normandy. This family came to England at the Conquest. Paganus de Templo witnessed a charter in Essex 1136 (Mon. i. 460); Robert in York 1150 (Mon. ii. 816). William held lands at Winchester 1148 (Wint. Domesd.). In 13th cent. Fulco de Temple held lands in Lincoln (Testa de Neville); and his descendants settled in Leicester, where Richard de T. held lands in 1279 (Nicholls, Leic. iv. 936): hence the Temples of Temple Hall, ancestors of the historical house of Temple, Viscounts Palmerston. The descent of this family from the Earls of Mercia is purely mythic.

A frequent location name. Also from the German, Tempel; from the Flemish, Tempels; a personal name.