One other group of names names possibly associated with a hill in early English records include the names Cnoll, Canol, Cnolle, Canoll. In Middle English knolle is a ‘hilltop’, ‘hillock’ and in Middle High German knol is a hill or ‘peak’; however, in Old English is the word for hill is cnoll (Old English cnoll “hilltop, small hill, clod, ball,” related to Old Norse knollr “hilltop;” German knolle “clod, lump;” Dutch knol “turnip,” nol “a hill.” https://www.dictionary.com/browse/knoller ).
Cnoll, Cnolle, Canol and Canoll occurs as names in early Norman records for different areas of England. Note: The sound of the French letter “C will change depending on if it is followed by a hard or a soft vowel: soft pronunciation – In front of an ‘E,’ ‘I,’ or ‘Y,’ the ‘C’ is pronounced like an ‘S’ ; hard pronunciation – In front of an ‘A,’ ‘O,’ ‘U,’ or a consonant, ‘C’ is pronounced like a ‘K’ https://www.thoughtco.com/french-pronunciation-of-c-1369549 . Thus cnoll (old English for hill) when used as a name would be pronounce like Knoll.
The English publication The Parliament Writs list a number of references to individuals with the Cnolle name in the 1300s (see below):
The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland list Cnolle as an early version of Knowles. Sir Robert Knowles a noted English mercenary fighting in Brittany and France in the 1300s was referred to as Sir Robert Canolles or Canole by French writers. A family Web Site for the Knell / Knill family names ( http://knightlyfamilies.com/intro1.htm ) has several comments sections (1 &3) that demonstrate that Cnoll, Cnolle were linked to the Knell families in England and that in the immediate centuries following the invasion these names were used interchangeably with Knell, Knill, Knolles, Knowles. By the fifteenth century in England the names Cnoll, Cnolle, Canol and Canoll were superseded by Knoll, Knolle, Knowles, etc.. In France there are historical records of the name dating from the 1600 mainly in the Charente-Maritime region (Rochelle) but virtually no modern references (see https://en.geneanet.org/ ). Many of the historical French records link to individuals that subsequently emigrated to the French colony of Acadia (now Nova Scotia).
There were DNA match to the Canol name, with all four “Dock Newells” investigated having matches and all but one having multiple matches. However, all of these matches had the same individual in their tree.
Marie Anne De Canol, BIRTH 1651 • St Martin De Re, La Rochelle, Charente Maritime, France DEATH 1693 • Pisquid, Minas Basin, Acadia, Canada.
All the links to Canol were linked to Marie Anne and her husband Jean Doiron; however, there were even more links to the Doiron name; perhaps linked to the 7 children they had in Port Royal, Acadia (now Nova Scotia). one of these children was Noel Doiron (c 1684 – 1758) who was referred to as the “father” to all the Acadians on Ile St. Jean (present-day PEI ) and was the namesake of the village Noel, Nova Scotia (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No%C3%ABl_Doiron ).
The Doiron family traces its roots back to Jean Doiron, born in France about 1649. He died between 28 April 1735 – 03 June 1736 at Ste-Famille de Pisiguit, Acadia. He married Marie Anne Canol c. 1671 (note see Ancestry DNA Results Part II, The Old World section for more background information on the Canol name and links to Knol). Circa 1710 Anne Le Blanc (see le Blanc name in matches) married Jean Doiron, son of Jean Doiron and Anne Marie Canol at Grand Pre. In 1740 Philippe Doiron married Ursule le June linking this family with le Jeune (above). The most famous member of this family was Noel Doiron who was born at Port Royal, Acadia in 1684 and lived most of his childhood at Pisiquid (present day Falmouth, 18 km fromGrand Pré). By 1714, Doiron and his family were established in Noel, Nova Scotia. The Doiron family grew to include five sons and three daughters—one son died in Vila Noel before 1746. Doiron and his family were deported in 1758 and died when the ship they were on sank about 20 leagues from the coast of France.
Many sources give Madeleine Lebrun as the mother of Marie-Anne Canol, Marie-Anne arrived in Port Royal in 1671 and married Jean Doiron.