Coat of Arms & Family Crests Store
Berrell Coat of Arms / Berrell Family CrestThis surname of BERRELL was of the locational group of surnames a Parish in County Hereford four miles from Hereford. There was also a small place of this name in counties Somerset and Devon although they are now lost places. The earliest of the name on record appears to be Robert de BIRHULLE who was documented in county Lincolnshire during the reign of Edward ll (l307-l327). Over the centuries, most people in Europe have accepted their surname as a fact of life, as irrevocable as an act of God. However much the individual may have liked or disliked the surname, they were stuck with it, and people rarely changed them by personal choice. A more common form of variation was in fact involuntary, when an official change was made, in other words, a clerical error. Later instances of the name note one Adam BERHULL of Yorkshire who was listed in the Yorkshire Poll Tax of l379. Tristram BERRILL of county Devon registered at Oxford University in l607 and Thomas Deeping married Mary BERRILL at St.James's Clerkenwell, London in the year l632. Benjamin BERRILL wed Agnes Hill at St. George's Chapel Mayfair,London, in l742. The name is also spelt BERRALL, and BERRILL. Surnames derived from placenames are divided into two broad categories; topographic names and habitation names. Topographic names are derived from general descriptive references to someone who lived near a physical feature such as an oak tree, a hill, a stream or a church. Habitation names are derived from pre-existing names denoting towns, villages and farmsteads. Other classes of local names include those derived from the names of rivers, individual houses with signs on them, regions and whole countries. Before the 1066 Conquest names were rare in England, the few examples found were mainly adopted by those of the clergy or one who had taken holy orders. In 1086 the conquering Duke William of Normandy commanded the Domesday Book. He wanted to know what he had and who held it, and the Book describes Old English society under its new management in minute detail. It was then that surnames began to be taken for the purposes of tax-assessment. The nobles and the upper classes were first to realise the prestige of a second name, but it was not until the 15th century that most people had acquired a second name. |
