River Mole in 1613. In John Speed's 1611 map of Surrey this stretch of the river is denoted by a series of hills accompanied by the legend "The river runneth under". However the river's name is unlikely to have derived from this behaviour: The "Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names" suggests that "Mole" either comes from the Latin "mola" (a mill) or is a back-formation from "Molesey" (Mul's island). In John Rocque's 1768 map of Surrey, the name "Moulsey River" is used. In common with much of the rest of the Weald, the earliest evidence of human settlement along the Upper Mole
River Mole Ages and the river appears as "Amele" in Domesday Book and subsequently as "Emele" in 12th- and 13th-century Court Rolls. This name is probably derived from the Old English word "æmen" meaning "misty" or "causing mists", and the name of the River Ember probably has its origins in this name. The name "Mole" does not appear until the 16th century, first occurring as "Moule" in Harrison's "Description of Britain" of 1577. The antiquarian William Camden uses the Latinized form "Molis" in the 1586 edition of "Britannia" and Michael Drayton is the first to use "Mole" in his poem "Poly-Olbion" published