Author Topic: Thomas Morrell, born about 1737.  (Read 1400 times)

Offline arthurk

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 5,161
    • View Profile
Re: Thomas Morrell, born about 1737.
« Reply #9 on: Wednesday 16 January 19 19:27 GMT (UK) »
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?
Researching among others:
Bartle, Bilton, Bingley, Campbell, Craven, Emmott, Harcourt, Hirst, Kellet(t), Kennedy,
Meaburn, Mennile/Meynell, Metcalf(e), Palliser, Robinson, Rutter, Shipley, Stow, Wilkinson

Census information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Offline Althea7

  • RootsChat Senior
  • ****
  • Posts: 463
  • Census information Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
    • View Profile
Re: Thomas Morrell, born about 1737.
« Reply #10 on: Wednesday 16 January 19 21:24 GMT (UK) »
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

Offline arthurk

  • RootsChat Marquessate
  • *******
  • Posts: 5,161
    • View Profile
Re: Thomas Morrell, born about 1737.
« Reply #11 on: Thursday 17 January 19 11:47 GMT (UK) »
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.
Researching among others:
Bartle, Bilton, Bingley, Campbell, Craven, Emmott, Harcourt, Hirst, Kellet(t), Kennedy,
Meaburn, Mennile/Meynell, Metcalf(e), Palliser, Robinson, Rutter, Shipley, Stow, Wilkinson

Census information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk