William Buell

On May 30, 1630, the sail boat "Mary & John" arrived from England at Nantucket, Massachusetts. As the story has it, there were two vessels which brought the company led by Rev. John Warham. The two vessels were intended to accompany each other on the voyage over.

 (Note: the "Mary & John" brought over at least two other Gillett ancestors - Holcombe & Grant.) Ten years later WILLIAM BUELL married Mary ______on November 18, 1640. They were the parents of seven children, two sons and five daughters, all born in Windsor, Connecticut. 

The travel to America from England took the 140 pilgrims 71 days. After arrival the group proceeded to Dorchester and founded the town. About the spring of 1636 the largest part of the Dorchester Church (with their pastor, Rev. John Warham) set out for the Connecticut River via the water route.

The Warham party settled at Matianuck (Windsor, Connecticut). The lot for William Buell was recorded on December 1, 1640. It initially consisted of 5 acres.

William Buell acquired additional land through grants from the town and purchases from John Bissell. About 1646, William Buell and William Filly, jointly, bought from William Thrall two tracts of eight acres and thirty-six acres.

The earliest-dated Buell record in America is from the Church Record of Rev. Matthew Grant of Windsor "December 3, 1639 - Goode Buell dyed". This probably referred to the death of William Buell's mother. Goode (probably misspelling of Goody) was a shortend term used for a widow. You can find the term used in many records. Besides that William Bevill's mother was Mary Coles who died when William Beville was 5. His stepmother Elizabeth Hampson-Hewett- Wakering-Beville (daughter of Catherine Good arrived when he was 12.

William Buell was skilled as a carpenter and cabinet maker. He was probably the chief all-around carpenter of Windsor as a number of records indicated work that was performed by him.

Why did a man who came from a rich family become a carpenter-laborer

The first record of a jury or court trial pertained to William Buell, who was the plaintive against Thomas Ford, defendant in the trespass damage to 7 bushels of Indian corn. William Buell won in this case.

William died November 16, 1681, probably in Windsor, Connecticut, about 71 years old. His wife, Mary, died September 1, 1684, also in Windsor, Connecticut.

Inventory. Pounds 147-12-10 Will dated 26, July, 1681

I, William Buell, do give my son, Samuel, the house and halfe the Homelott, with all the land purchased of William Thrall; and to my son, Peter, halfe the Homelott on the North side and all the Meadow and Wood Land that was mine owne by guift of the Towne. My Tooles to be divided Samuel and Peter. My son Samuel to pay out 11 pounds and Peter 6 pounds and this, with the rest of my Goodes, to be equally divided between my daughters, only my daughter Mary to have 5 pounds more than either of the others. These 2 parcells of Land, one my the Gravell hill, the other my the Mill brooke, which I leave to my wife's disposeing if she out lives me, and she is to enjoy all this as long as she lives. William X Buell

Apparently he could not write his name (or he was too ill to write it). If the former, he probably would not be from a knightly family.

Witness: Nathaniel Gillet, Timothy Phelps, Job Drake, son of John Drake, James Hillier

-------------------- This may shock some of you but  William Buel was  not a Bevill.

William Bevill died in 1637 and was buried at St Michael's Church in Chesterton, Huntingdonshire. He was a lawyer and left a lot of money and jewelry to family and the poor of several parishes. he never married. Photo of Beville will is in the sources section above

By Mathew Grants words William was a "Welchman". Also believed by some of his earlier descendants.

Albert Welles was mistaken on several facts about the Bevill and other families.

-------------------- PLEASE!  DO NOT add any ancestors named Bevill to this name

-------------------- http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/f/r/e/Helen-M-Freeman-CT...

PLEASE PLEASE READ THE FACTS BEVILLE DIED IN ENGLAND IN 1637.......HE DID NOT COME HERE...EVER. NOR DID ANY OF HIS FAMILY...................A BEVILLE COUSIN CAME TO VIRGINIA

Note that William Beville was born 1605 in Chesterton and died in 1637 in London. Buried in Chesterton ;; Church record. Source; Asselia Lichlighter, "700 Years of the Beville Family".

William was the father of Samuel Buell, of Killingsworth Connecticut. Ref.: "A GENEALOGICAL REGISTER OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE TOWN OF LITCHFIELD, CONN.", Page 39, by George C. Woodruff, 1845.

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From Geni discussion "Need Help Fixing American Profiles" and Kandy Oaks' research:

Birthplace of William Buell By Jim Buell March 12, 2006 at 04:22:25 http://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/buell/1209/

" WHERE WAS WILLIAM BUELL OF WINDSOR, CONNECTICUT BORN?

William Buell was one of the early settlers of Windsor, Connecticut. For a detailed account of his life one should read The American Genealogist, April 1978, Vol. 54, No. 2, by George E. Mc Cracken, William Buell & Early Descendants.

Over the years many genealogy researchers have searched for the birthplace of William Buell of Windsor. The first book that can be found that indicates where William was born is the Statistical Account of the County of Middlesex in Connecticut, by David Field, April 1819, p. 106. In this book under the town of Killingworth he states that "Samuel Buel from Wales". According to the Vital Records of Windsor, Connecticut, by Timothy Loomis, September 1720, Samuel Buell the first child of William was born at Windsor on September 2, 1641. Field does not give a reference as to where he found the above information about Samuel. In the book, Catalogue Of The Names Of The Early Puritan Settlers Of The Colony Of Connecticut, by Royal R. Hinman, 1852, p. 368, states that William Buell was a Welshman. On the title page of the book it says that the information was collected from the records of Hartford. The next book that gives an indication as to where William was born is, The History of Ancient Windsor, by Henry R. Stiles, Vol. II, edition 1859, p. 563 & edition 1892, p. 126, which states that William was a "Welshman". Stiles states that he found the information for his book from numerous sources in Windsor but does not give a specific source for the information about William. Since the Hinman and Stiles books were printed after the Field book it is possible that Hinman and Stiles took this information from the Field book and assumed that William was a Welshman. Since it is known that Samuel was born at Windsor and did not come from Wales; and there is no specific reference in the Hinman, Stiles or Field books, it is doubtful that William was a Welshman, unless someone can find the specific document for this piece of information.

In the book, History of the Buell Family in England and in America, by Albert Welles, 1881, p. 20, gives the possible birthplace of William Buell as Chesterton, Huntingdonshire, England. According to the Welles book "William might have been a younger son of Sir Robert Beville, of Chesterton, in Huntingdonshire". The Welles book also says that William was among the group of people that moved from Dorchester, Massachusetts to Windsor in 1635. According to the Parish Register at St. Michael's Church in Chesterton there is no William Buell mentioned. There was however a number of William Bevills mentioned. The only one that might have been William Buell is a William Bevill born February 6, 1604. But, this William Bevill died on February 20, 1637/8 at Chesterton, so he could not have been the William Buell of Windsor. In the book 700 Years Of The Beville Family, compiled by Ass'elia S. Lichliter, 1976 also mentions a number of William Bevills but none of them immigrated to America. In a personal letter to me from Mrs. Lichliter, she informed me that she did not believe that any of the William Bevills of Chesterton was William Buell of Windsor since they were all born and died in England.

If William Buell was not born at one of the above locations then where could he have been born? In trying to locate his birthplace the spelling of the Buell name should be taken into consideration. In the will of William Buell his surname was spelled Buel, Buell and Bewell. William made his mark on his will, which probably meant that he could not read or write. The book New Dictionary Of American Family Names, by Elsdon C. Smith, 1973, p. 65, gives the Buell name as "one who came from Bueil (field infested by crows), in France". In the book A Dictionary Of British Surnames, by P. H. Reaney, 1976, p. 34, 44, 45, gives a number of various spellings for the Buell name. Under the surname Bowell there is mentioned a Lambert de Buella that held Shellow Bowells, Essex, England in 1086 who probably came from Seine-Inferieure, France. Also mentioned is a Ralph de Bueles of Essex in 1249. Other variations of the name in the book by Reaney are Bovill, Bevill, Bowles and Boelles. In the counties of Durham and York in England the Buell spelling can also be found. In this instance it seems to be part of the Bull family. In the book The Battle Abbey Roll, by Duchess Of Cleveland, 1889, mentions a man with the name Boels or Bools that might have fought in the Battle of Hastings. It seems that no one knows what happen to this man. An Osbert de Boelles, 1165, held lands in Devonshire. Different spellings of the name can also be found in the counties of Bedford, Warwick, Southants, Stafford, Rutland and Salop. In Salop a William Buels (descended from Helias de Buel) sold estates in 1290. His son William settled in Hereford and one of his descendents was Ludovick Buel, or Boyle of Hereford. The Boyle spelling can be found in different counties of Ireland and Scotland and might be related to Ludovick Buel. There was an Osbert de Boel in Lincoln County, England in 1138. The spelling of the name changed to Bowles or Bolles, the family was in Lincoln County for six hundred years. Also in the book by Duchess of Cleveland the name Beuill is mentioned. Variations of the spelling of this name are Boville, Boeville, Buvilla and Bevill. A Humphrey de Biville and his brother William probably fought in the Battle of Hastings. Later the name can be found in the counties of Hereford, Suffolk, Chesterton, Cornwall and other counties. In the Public Record Office in London, England there is a document (C 1/1332/17) which mentions a William Buell. This William in the reign of King Henry the VIII was given a tenement and a farthing of land in Knighton, Manor of Wembury, Devonshire for as long as he lives. No other information about this William or his family has been found. The Bewell spelling can be found in England. According to the IGI (International Genealogical Index) the first record of this name is a christening for an Anthony Bewell in 1558 in Sussex. The largest concentration of persons with this name is in Yorkshire. Other counties with this name are Lincoln, Kent and the city of London with a few persons in other counties. But there is no birth record for a William Bewell in the early 1600s. From the above information it can be seen how many variation of the Buell name there are in England.

To find a possible location as to where William Buell might have come from one can look at the above book by Stiles. The book by Stiles is probably the best book available for the history of Windsor. Windsor was settled by four groups of people; they were the Plymouth Trading Company, the Stiles Party, the people from Dorchester, Massachusetts and the Huit Group. The Plymouth Company sent a William Holmes and a crew of men on "a large new bark," to what is now Windsor. They had with them the materials to build a house. There is no list of names of his crew. The next group to arrive at Windsor is the Stiles Party. The person in charge of this party was Francis Stiles who was sent by Sir Richard Saltonstall to prepare grounds and erect houses for himself and certain other lords and gentlemen. There were about twenty men with Francis Stiles and there is a complete list of their names and William Buell is not among them. Following the Stiles party was the group of people from Dorchester. Most of the people of this group came from the counties of Devonshire, Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, England. They left from Plymouth, England in 1630 and sailed on the ship Mary and John. There were about 140 persons among this group. After arriving in America they settled at Dorchester, Massachusetts. There is no official list of the passengers who sailed on this ship. The book The "Mary and John" by Maude P. Kuhns, has attempted to make a list of the persons of this group from various sources. William Buell is not among the persons of this list and he is not mentioned in the Stiles book as being among the persons in the Dorchester group. The last group of early settlers of Windsor was the Huit Group. The person in charge of this group was a Reverend Ephraim Huit of Wroxhall, Warwickshire, England. There is no list of the persons of this group but it is known that the Griswold family and possibly the Drake family came with this group. Also there were people that joined this group after they arrived in America but before they went to Windsor. One family that might have joined this group is the Joseph Loomis family, which came from Braintree, in Essex County, England.

The Huit group arrived at Windsor on August 17, 1639. On December 3, 1639 a person by the name of Goode Buell died at Windsor. William Buell and Mary were married on November 18, 1640. Goode Buell might have been William's first wife or his mother. From the above dates it would seem possible that William came to Windsor with the Huit group. If he did come with this group it is difficult to say if he joined the group in England or after they arrived in America.

From all of the above information one can see how difficult it is to research the birthplace of William Buell. The Buell spelling of the name is very rare in England, which makes it difficult to do research on just that spelling. The other spellings of the name are very numerous and are in a number of different counties in England. Since there is no information in Windsor records to indicated where William was living before he came to America it makes it difficult to find a place to start any research. Until a new piece of information becomes available that will lead to where William was living before he came to America it will be difficult to find anymore information about William Buell of Windsor, Connecticut."

According to my grandmother's notes, William was born in Chesterdon, Hunterdonshire, England about 1610. He sailed from Plymouth England March 30, 1630 and landed at Nantasket, Boston Harbor May 30, 1630. He settled in Dorchester, Mass. He was a proprietor at Windsor and his mother came with him to New England. She died December 3, 1631 at Windsor. But she is not named
Her reference: History of Ancient Windsor, Conn (Stiles) p. 126