BEHARRELL FAMILY HISTORY
A history of the three families that came to England
from Northern France and Holland in 1626

INTRODUCTION

This is a history of the Beharrell family, that came to England from Northern
France and Holland in 1626. The first recorded instance in England of the
name Beharrell was in 1587 when a family of that name was living in Canterbury,
a town on the south coast close to the English Channel and France. There is no
record of the continued existence of this family. Almost all Beharrells in
England, the USA, Canada and Australia can trace their origins to the three
Beharrell families of French Huguenots (Walloons) who arrived here in 1626 as
part of a larger group of 85 families, to carry out drainage work in the Isle
of Axholme, a marshy area on the border of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

The Huguenot community in France had recently become subject once again to
religious persecution.  As a result, some of the community left France and
fled to Holland, becoming centred on the town of Middleburg on the small
island of Walcheren immediately north of the border with France.

In a Paper on "The origins of the Huguenot and Walloon Immigrants", a link to
which is provided below, it is said that the Middleburg community went as a
body to Sandtoft in the Isle of Axholme. The Beharrell families in England
must have kept contact with their friends and relatives in Walcheren because
in 1794, Anna Beharrell (d. 1794) widow of Abraham (b. 1702 d. 1776)
bequeathed 25 pounds to her daughter Elizabeth Grabourn "now settled in
Flushing in Zealand". Flushing is on the island of Walcheren, about 6 miles
south of Middleburg. See Anna's Will, number 25 in Section W.

The name Beharrell still figures in the Telephone Directories in Northern France.

After the drainage of the Isle of Axholme was finished, the families split,
one group moving south about 70 miles to the Fens around Peterborough.
The other moved a short distance of 10 miles north to the area around Snaith
and Drax, then moving some 30 miles east to settle in Wawne in the East Riding
of Yorkshire. This history is mainly that of the East Yorkshire branch from
their arrival in England. More information about the origins of the Huguenot
immigrants can be found in the link below.

My wife and I carried out the research in 1989 to 1991, with a small addition
in 1995. We based our work on that already done by John Beharrell (1893 - 1956),
Sir George Beharrell (1873 - 1959) and by Gordon and June Beharrell of
Shrewsbury. 

The story is presented as a section on the History of the family, supported
by sections on the data discovered in the research. This comprises lists of 
Baptisms, Marriages and Burials of members of the family, Population Census 
Readings and Family Trees. Copies of the letters arising from the early
researches carried out by John and Sir George Beharrell are in Section E. 
Numerous Wills and Legal documents were discovered and these are included
in Section W.

One important piece of information is still required. This is the date and
place of birth of Robert Beharrell, who was born between 1705 and say 1720
probably in Wawne or a nearby parish. He died in 1790. For the last 10 years
this detail has eluded us but we are still in active pursuit. 
See the Trees T3 and T6.

Please feel free to use this document as you wish. We will be pleased to hear
from anyone with comments or suggestions for additions or amendments.

The pages have been developed with HTML4 and Internet Explorer 5.

The Family Trees and lists of Births, Marriages and Deaths have been
squeezed up to get each one to print out within the width of a sheet of
A4 or a US sheet of paper. So, when printing files viewed on a Web 
Browser, set the left and right page margins to 0.2 inches or 5 mm.

When viewing the choices from Links in the Contents Page (Births, Marriages,
etc), maximise the resulting window to reveal the full width of the text.

Also, when viewing in Internet Explorer, click    View/TextSize/Smallest
 
This will ensure that the whole width of the various windows is visible.

Frank Dickenson.
ENGLAND
fdickenson@aol.com

May 2000    Last updated 3 November 2006

Click here for a Picture of the Authors. (144KB .jpg)

All Pages are accessed through links on the Contents Page