Family name origins & meanings
- English : variant of Ralph.
- A Francis Rawle from the parish of St. Juliot in Cornwall, England, was recorded as living in Plymouth, MA, in 1660. Devout Quakers seeking to escape persecution, the family emigrated to PA in 1686, bringing with them a deed from William Penn for a tract of 2,500 acres of land, which was subsequently located in Plymouth township, Philadelphia (now Montgomery) Co. His son, who had six sons himself, was a political economist and one of the first people to write on the subject and its local applications in America.