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England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Durham => Topic started by: Althea7 on Sunday 13 January 19 15:35 GMT (UK)
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Thomas Morrell was born about 1737, place unknown. He died in February 1820 in West Auckland, County Durham. His wife is Sarah, born about 1736, died October 1821 Bishop Middleton, County Durham.
It is believed that his family came from France around the 1700's.
I can't find any further information about Thomas Morrell or his wife Sarah, no marriage record or who their parents were or where they were born. They had at least two children, George born 1773 Durham and John born 1766, Denton, Durham. These births are shown on familysearch.org as born to Thomas Morrell and Sarah.
Also on familysearch.org there is a Thomas Morrell christened on 5th November 1732 at St Cuthberts, Darlington, father John Morrel. This probably isn't him, but it is the only birth I can find that remotely fits.
If this family came from France in the 1700's, the name would likely have a different spelling, and they could possibly be mariners? Why would French people settle in County Durham in the 1700's?
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Thomas Morel married Sarah Parnaby 30 Nov 1765 Thirkleby By Thirsk,Yorkshire
No children in Yorkshire for above.
Baptisms on family search at Denton, Durham
John 1766
Thomas 1768
George 1773
Possible baptisms?
Thomas Morrel baptised 1739 Bagby, Yorkshire. father George
Thomas Morrel baptised 1740 Thirsk father John
Baptism Sarah Parnaby father John
25 Apr 1742 Auckland Saint Andrew, Durham
Colin
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Thomas Morel married Sarah Parnaby 30 Nov 1765 Thirkleby By Thirsk,Yorkshire
No children in Yorkshire for above.
Baptisms on family search at Denton, Durham
John 1766
Thomas 1768
George 1773
Possible baptisms?
Thomas Morrel baptised 1739 Bagby, Yorkshire. father George
Thomas Morrel baptised 1740 Thirsk father John
Baptism Sarah Parnaby father John
25 Apr 1742 Auckland Saint Andrew, Durham
Colin
Thanks. I will try to work out which baptism is more likely for Thomas Morrel, and why people think the family and name came from France in the 1700's.
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The name does appear to be of French origin but it arrived in England at the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066.
Colin
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The name does appear to be of French origin but it arrived in England at the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066.
Colin
The Huguenots mostly came from France to England after 1685, because of Louis XIV's increased persecution of Protestantism with the Edict of Fontainebleau. Many of them were weavers, which might bring them to Yorkshire, and I am not sure about Northumberland and Durham. They might have ended up in Durham having been initially drawn to the woollen weaving industry in Yorkshire?
I found a possible John Morrell who could be Thomas' father, born 1709 in Thirsk, Yorkshire, whose father was called Thomas. The records are very sparse. I was wondering how a French name would get Anglicised in the late 1600's and early 1700's. Jean Morel could easily become John Morrell.
I read that it took about three generations for the Huguenots to become completely assimilated, as they were happy with the Protestant churches already in England.
If the belief that they came from France in the 1700's is mostly accurate, surely they would have to be Huguenots?
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I had a similar situation as yourself when tracing my grandmothers Trickett family.
The Trickett name is also of French origin and derives from Triquet. The Families later connection to Silk Weaving may indiacate that they were French Huguenots. They were a persecuted Protestant minority who fled from France, this began in 1536 when the Catholic government of France issued an edict to exterminate them, in 1562 some 1200 Huguenots were slain at Vassey, France. Many came to Britain between the 16th & 18th Centuries. However the name was first introduced to England at the time of William the Conqueror in 1066.
My Trickett Ancestry begins around 1640 in Staffordshire.
Colin
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George Redmonds' Dictionary of Yorkshire Surnames notes that the name was brought over by the Normans, and quotes a few Yorkshire examples from the 12th-14th centuries.
He also mentions a cluster in the Thirsk area, but says he hasn't been able to link these to any of the earlier examples. However, he gives examples around Thirsk from 1545, with over 20 in a taxation list of 1673, so there were clearly a good number who weren't Huguenots.
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There was some flight from France after 1534, when some Huguenots were burnt at the stake or executed https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affair_of_the_Placards
This involved the town of Tours, among others. I read somwhere that the name Morrell suddenly appeared in the 700's in the area of the cities of Tours and Poitiers, along with other versions of the same stem "Maur", due to one event in 732 just outside Tours and Poitiers the Arabs (Moores) were defeated in a battle and expelled, with some Arabs fighting on the French side, who may have been given names with this stem, of which Morrell is the diminutive form meaning small and dark.
The name then fades until the Morels reappear in 1573 as part of the Huguenot alliance in France.
Interesting that there was a cluster in the Thirsk area with examples from 1545 which George Redmonds couldn't link to the earlier examples from the Normans in the 12th to 14th centuries.
The earliest Morrell's I can find in my tree are Thomas Morrell, tentatively 1667 to 1724, father Georgi, born in Bagby which is 3 miles south east of Thirsk. Married Mary Burnnett on November 20th 1694 in Coxwold. Coxwold is about 6 miles south east of Thirsk. His daughter Mary was born in January 1708 in Thirsk, and his son John was born in 1709 in Thirsk. The burial record only says Yorkshire, doesn't specify a place, on 14th November 1724.
The twenty Morrells named in the taxation list of 1673 sounds like the Hearth Tax? I read that this has documents from 1662-1666 and 1669-1674. So there could be a Georgi or something that is the same name given in the Thirsk list. I assume this list was only of adult males, who paid the tax, and wouldn't list their families.
Familysearch.org does give two other possible baptisms for Thomas Morrell other than the 1667 one. There is one in Bagby on 17th April 1664, father Thomas, and one in Bagby on 30 August 1663, father John. But these seem less likely as they would be older, and seem too old for the date of marriage and the dates of the children's births.
Still 1545 is a long way from the 1700's when people believe the Morrells came from France. I could have made a mistake anywhere along the way, and this is all guesswork.
I looked at that George Redmonds book on Amazon, and at another which he co-authored. He does seem to emphasise the importance of locality in small villages and areas for surnames.
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I had a similar situation as yourself when tracing my grandmothers Trickett family.
The Trickett name is also of French origin and derives from Triquet. The Families later connection to Silk Weaving may indiacate that they were French Huguenots. They were a persecuted Protestant minority who fled from France, this began in 1536 when the Catholic government of France issued an edict to exterminate them, in 1562 some 1200 Huguenots were slain at Vassey, France. Many came to Britain between the 16th & 18th Centuries. However the name was first introduced to England at the time of William the Conqueror in 1066.
My Trickett Ancestry begins around 1640 in Staffordshire.
Colin
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Yes, the Huguenot persecution started probably in 1534, the Affair of the Placards, earlier than the main one after 1685.
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OK - I'm not up to speed on all of that. I wonder if there are any hints in early registers around Thirsk as to an influx of Huguenots in the 16th century?
Still, it's quite a long way for them to go, unless perhaps they were looking for a quiet life in the country. Didn't most exiles head for London?
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I have been trying to find out a bit about the history of Thirsk, like who the main aristocrat was and where his allegiances were. Given the intense religious upheavals of King Henry VIII's reign, which took in 1545, it would be interesting to know who the local rector in Thirsk was too.
I read somewhere that these northern counties were very sparsely populated so every person who lived in a place at that time would be significant and not drowned out with a lot of people with the same name.
The reign of Edward VI was 1547-1553, when England would have been hospitable to foreign Protestants. Followed by Mary Tudor's reign from 1553 to 1558 when it wasn't, and then Elizabeth who started Anglicanism, which seems to be a broad church mostly Protestant, and Elizabeth's reign had religious tolerance. In the earlier period the reign of Henry VIII from 1509 to 1547 might have actively recruited foreign protestants?
I am not up to speed on any of this, it is a steep learning curve for where places are, English and even French history, and where the records are. I still can't work out what the main industries were in this part of North Yorkshire, it was probably different from the wool industry of West Yorkshire. A real puzzle what would bring French people to a small North Yorkshire town in the 1500's or the 1700's. It looks as though the religious upheavals at the time are a likely possibility.
If this group of Morrells were in the Thirsk district from 1545, that was the reign of Henry VIII, and they would have been protected as Protestants during the reign of Edward VI as well. I wonder if they had any connection with a local aristocrat or baron or churchman who was especially loyal to Henry VIII?
Henry VIII had foreign mercenaries 1544-1546? https://www.historytoday.com/gilbert-john-millar/mercenaries-under-henry-viii-1544-46. Henry VIII was actively at war with King Francis I of France at this time, the same King Francis I who started persecuting the Huguenots in France. And Henry VIII was desperately looking for foreign mercenaries.
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=PDBrGkpwT9AC&pg=PA310&lpg=PA310&dq=henry+viii+mercenaries&source=bl&ots=rUdTtYtTG4&sig=ACfU3U1NIk-i0CpnN6SZQItdAtXrT95w0w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjezPWdpfPfAhWNUxUIHbPMCFYQ6AEwDnoECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=henry%20viii%20mercenaries&f=false
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A possible alternative origin for the Morrells in the Thirsk area has occurred to me, though it's pure speculation and I have no evidence for it.
Between Darlington and Richmond there's a village called Newton Morrell. It's mentioned in the Domesday Book, and it's generally reckoned that Morrell derives from the Norman surname. Is it possible that Normans gave their name to the place, and that later folk, who had no direct male-line descent from the Normans, used the place name (or part of it) as their own surname some 400 years later? Just a thought.
I have a copy of a printed transcript of Thirsk registers, and there's no mention of France in the place index, nor do the surnames include more than a handful of names that might be of French origin.
The occupations do include a number of textile-related trades, however. I'm currently looking at a family involved in the wool trade where there's fairly strong evidence that they moved from Norfolk to Yorkshire in the first half of the 16th century, so it's possible that others made a similar move, and from other parts of the country. In pre-industrial times, my impression is that the wool trade spread out across the whole county, rather than being concentrated in the West Riding.