Signpole Sinepole or St Paul

[Dolgellau]

I would be pleased to know about any occurrences of the name Signpole or Sinepole. I have a cluster of them from the late 1600s to the late 1700’s in the Pontesbury area of Shropshire but no trace of them since.

The name doesn’t appear on any of the census indices and appears to have died out in Shropshire by about 1790.

One possibility is that the name is a corruption of Saint Paul (there use to be an MP called St-John-Stevens who use to pronounce his name Singen) so I’d be pleased to here from anybody with Shropshire ancestors surnamed St Paul, or just Paul to see if I can make any possible connections between my Signpoles and them.

[Hackstaple]

I notice the name Simpole around Salop in the various censuses. I agree that surnames become altered by dialect. Apart from St. John there is St. Leger [Salinger], Menzies [Mings] and many others.