Generation 2 : Jesse Bazil b) 5 Apr 1827 in Fulton County, Illinois d) 18 Jul 1888 in Chappel, San Saba Co, Tx

Generation 3 : Moses Brazil b) 1803 in Anderson, Tenn d) 3 Apr 1872 in Texas

Generation 4 : Richard Brazil b) 1759 Orange Co., Nc d) 2 Nov 1842 Saline Co., Arkansas

Generation 5 : Richard Braswell b) 1715 d) 1755

Generation 6. Valentine Brazil b) 1679 d) 1764/1766 in Orange, Chatham, N.C.

Generation 7. Richard Bracewell b) 1651 in Isle of Wight, Virginia d) 1724/1725 in Isle of Wight, Virginia

Generation 8. Robert Bracewell b) 1611 in England d) 1668 in Isle of Wight, Va.

Generation 9. Richard Bracewell b) Abt 1576 in Grantham, England d) 1641 in Holborn, London, England

Generation 10. Robert Bracewell b) 1553 d) Burial: 23 Sep 1613 Grantham, England

Generation 11. Edmund Bracewell b) Abt 1510 d) 27 Mar 1560 in Grantham Parish, Lincolnshire, England

The surname "Bracewell" began as an English place name. The Bracewells
of the West Riding, Yorkshire, were landed gentry until 1166 A.D. when
they were dispossessed by the Le Temptest Norman family. {Burke's "Family Records" (1897)

These original Bracewells, now landless, appear to have migrated southward in seach of greener pastures. One of the earliest known Bracewells of record was JOHN DE BRACEWELL who appeared in Lincolnshire in 1273 A.D. ( "Dictionary of English and Welch Surnames")

The name was first pronounced as "brass ull"--silent "w", as in "Greenwich". (Cf. The 1668 will of Rev. ROBERT BRACEWELL of Isle of Wight County, VA which he signed as Robert " Bracell" with a viniculum {__} above to show that silent or unnecessary letters were left out. He may have begun signing that way when he was a student at Oxford. When this Immigrant Ancestor's family moved to the southern parish of Isle of Wight County {present Southampton County}, the recordkeepers there opted for a simplified spelling--"Braswell". The name stuck: "Braswell" is still the preferred spelling of most of Parson Bracewell's descendants. The pronunciation stayed the same. {Cf. CAMPBELL to BURN, 30 Oct 1698, IW DB 1, 1688-1704, pp. 262/3} in which reference is made to "RICHd BRASSELLs branch".

When literacy finally overtook the Bracewells again--either through tutors hired by the fortunate planter class few or through nineteenth century schoolmasters for the rest of us--each of the family's many branches adopted their own spelling. And although "Braswell" was preferred by most, some fifty other spelling variants, some beginning with
"Braz--"had emerged by the mid-1800's.

Why some branches shifted the pronunciation slightly {from "brass ull" to "braz ull"} remains a mystery. One well-known researcher maintains that North Carolina Braswells have ALWAYS pronounced the first syllable as "braz". Whichever the case, by 1790 five Braswell families in as many different NC counties had their names recorded as "Braz--" something: BRAZWELL, BRAZIL (2), BRAZEL, and BRAZELL.

One influence that may have contributed to the pronunciation shift was contact with Scottish Highlanders spreading out along the Cape Fear valley. After Culloden (1746 A.D.). Their Norse tendency to harden "s" sounds {e.g. "shirt" into "skirt"} could explain why so many Braswells of the Piedmont and beyond now have "Braz--" names. And certainly, after the Potato Famine of 1845, contact with the Celtic Irish BRAZILs, who say it "braz ul", had its effect.

Finally, universal public education in America prompted many Braswell branches to adopt pronunciations that exactly matched their spelling.
Thus the original spoken "brass ull" has morphed into such seemingly-unrelated sounds and spellings as "brass well" {Braswell}, "brace well" {Bracewell) and "Bra zil".

Carey