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Broughall English
Parish Records |
The Church of Latter Day Saints (the
Mormon Church) has been making microfilm copies of civil and church
records for genealogical use for a great many years. As computers
began revolutionizing data processing, the Mormons began abstracting
these records, entered the information into a data base and sorted the
results. Among their greatest achievements is the publication of old
church parish records. They contain marriages and christenings (but
not deaths) from the 1500s through the mid 1800s. There is a separate
publication for each county. The entries consist of date, parish,
event, and names of participants.
Photocopies were obtained
of the pages on which the Broughall/Broughill name would appear for
every county in England, Ireland and Wales. Only four entries were found
for Ireland and only two for Wales, both after 1800, suggesting no
widespread distribution of the name in these countries. However, the
lack of abstracts from Ireland may be misleading as many early Irish
records have been destroyed. English Parish records contain some 900
entries relating to the Broughall-Broughill surname. This may seem like
a great many, but they represent over 250 years. They contain a wealth
of information, but unfortunately they are not complete, as
approximately half of the original records have been lost or destroyed.
A marriage may be listed in one parish, but then the family disappears
from the records because they moved to a new parish, one whose records
have been lost.
These abstracts were entered
into a data base, then sorted by several criteria. This revealed several
very early Broughall families: |
The
Broughalls of Stafford County |
The
earliest record of the Broughall name appears not
in Shropshire County, the home of the ancient village of Broughall, but
a few dozen miles to the north in Newcastle Upon Lyme, Stafford County,
which lies between Shropshire and Liverpool. It was there that Radulphi
or Radi Broughall christened two sons Radulphus and Roberti during the
1560's. Contemporary to them were Johnis and Thomas Broughall, who also
lived at Newcastle Upon Lyme. They may have been sons of Radulphi. |
The Broughills of
Lancashire |
Johnis (also spelled Johannes, Johanni, Johis and John)
Broughill married a Jennetta (last name unknown) at Preston in 1614. He
may have been the son of Johis Broughall of Newcastle Upon Lyme, who was
christened in 1583 and 1586, and thus the grandson of Radulphi of
Stafford County. During the next 15 years following his 1614 marriage,
he christened five sons at the Preston Church. Significant is that his
name was often spelled "Broughill." |
The Broughalls of
Cheshire |
Thomas Broughall appears here in 1599 when he
christened his daughter Ann and in 1602 when he christened his son
Thomas, both in Nanwich. He may also be a son of Radulphi from Stafford. |
The Broughalls of
London |
Regardless of origin, just about
every English family had a member or two trek off to the big city,
London. It was here that a ----- Brughole married Susan in 1572 at Bermondsey, St. Mary. The
variation in spelling is so great that this entry might have been
overlooked if it were not for William Browghall marrying Margaret Powell
at the same church in 1588. The name appears four times in the next
generation, then disappears for a century. |
The Broughalls of Shropshire |
Wem is only about ten miles south of the ancient
village of Broughall. It was here that Margaret Broughall married Adam Cartwright in 1593 and William Broughall
married Ann Higginson in 1603. The family then disappears from Wem Parish records only to reappear
at Whitchurch, less than three miles from the village of Broughall.
In the next generation, Whitchurch parish records list John, George,
Robert and Thomas Broughall. Broughalls remained in Whitchurch for the
next century, but by 1700, several of its members migrated to the nearby
villages of Newport, Sutton Maddock, Madeley and Wellington. Most of the
entries appear in Shropshire near the village of Broughall. |
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Shropshire and surrounding
counties.
Many of the Parishes which contain Broughall-Broughill records are
shown. |
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