Unknown Father of William Buell

HISTORY OF PARLIMENT NO MALE MEMBERS OF ROBERT BEVILLE SURVIVED AFTER HIM IN 1637. THIS MEANS WILLIAM BUEL WAS NOT A BEVILLE THIS IS NOT SHOUTING IT IS EMPHASIS.

Father of William BEVILLE and Robert Beville members at (Lawyers) in Gray's Inn Court of Law, London. ALL DIED in England BEFORE 1641

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."