Rundle

The Rundle family name is a prominent one in many parts of southwest England, particularly Cornwall.

Notable people with the surname include:

Adam Rundle, English football player

David Rundle, South African cricketer

David Allen Rundle, American serial killer

Emma Ruth Rundle, American singer-songwriter

John Rundle, British politician

Katherine Fernandez Rundle, State Attorney in Florida, United States

Sir Leslie Rundle (1856–1934), British Army General

Mary Rundle, British naval officer

Peter Rundle (born 1962), Australian politician

Robert E. Rundle, American chemist and crystallographer

Robert Terrill Rundle, missionary in Western Canada in the mid-1800s

Sophie Rundle, English actress

Tony Rundle (1939–2025), premier of Tasmania, Australia (1996–1998)

Originating from the manor at Cobham in Kent which at the time of the Norman invasion was called Roundale or Rundale (the site which is now named Randall Wood). The surname of Rundale, Rundell, Rundle, etc. was originally of 'middling' noble blood, owning a baronage in Cobham, Kent in the twelfth century that lasted for just two generations.

Earliest records indicate that in 1203 the manor was granted to Henry de Cobham. In 1245, John de Cobham acquired the neighbouring manor of Rundale with 50 acres (20 ha). In the 13th century, his son, Henry de Cobham de Rundale inherited Rundale. The line then passed to his son, Stephen de Cobham de Rundele, who becomes first Baron Rundell.

The elder or Kentish line of the Cobhams terminated in an heiress, and she married Sir John Oldcastle, who was summoned to Parliament in right of his wife, as Baron Cobham, in 1409, and who afterwards became famous as the leader of the Lollards.

The Rundle family was then centered in the southwest, where amongst other things - and like many in the area - the family was a prominent member of the seafaring community and owned a large number of taverns until the mid seventeenth century.