Why It Matters in Research
This spelling variant appears in historical legal sources and may be encountered when searching older digests, manuscripts, or transcribed documents. Researchers who encounter NOCHELL in a historical source should treat it as an alternative orthographic form of NOTCHELL and consult that entry for substantive content. Spelling inconsistency in pre-modern legal texts is common, and variant forms were not always cross-referenced in contemporary indexes. A search limited to a single spelling may miss relevant materials.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's Law Dictionary lists NOCHELL without independent definition, directing the reader to NOTCHELL. The entry immediately following in Bouvier's — NOCTANTER — is a distinct term referring to an abolished chancery writ for the prostration of enclosures, repealed by 7 & 8 Geo. IV, c. 27. Researchers should take care not to conflate NOCHELL/NOTCHELL with NOCTANTER simply because they appear in proximity in Bouvier's alphabetical sequence.