The
Balkwell Family of ye merrie olde England...ancestors of the
Barkwills of Ohio and West Virginia.
The family of our Barkwills that emigrated to Ohio was descended from the Balkwells of Devonshire and Cornwall, England. For two centuries, those ancestors never ventured far from home…a circle of 20 miles radius with its center at Okehampton would include all of their homes, except for Arthur, who ventured 80 miles to St. Gluvias, Cornwall to have William—who immediately returned to the Balkwill country, in Bratton Clovelly.
IN the most southwesterly section of the British Isles are two maritime counties: Cornwall, the site of “Pirates of Penzance”, “Seven men with seven wives on the way to St. Ives”, legendary home of “King Arthur” and “Jack the Giant Killer”, home of Cornish Pasties, and Land’s End. The ancient Celtic language of Cornish was commonly spoken here until the end of the eighteenth century. Its main industry in the nineteenth century was tin mining and export of China Clay. Cornwall’s Easterly boundary is shared with Devonshire which is distinguished by Historic Battles, protected sea-ports, mountain top moors, deep valleys and apple-cider.
One of the early families in this area were the Balkwells—a curious and rather uncommon surname. The derivation of the Balkwell name is unknown, but has lasted through the years in its various forms, and continues in England today as Balkwell, Barkwill and Barkwell mostly only in Devon.
Much of the the vital data for this family was intially started by Barbour Herrington, my mother's cousin, graciously shared by John Barkwill, son of O. C. Barkwill—younger brother of my grandfather Earl Barkwill, and by a distant Ontario cousin, English born Eileen Barkwell.
On the Southeasterly coast of Devon, along the English Channel, a little South of Exmoor, lies the Parish of Brixham, where William Countreyman and his wife Marye (Caper) had a daughter Joan christened on August 4, 1622.
Joan married on the Seventh of November, 1637,in
Crediton, Devon, a young man by the name of Richard Balkwell, who was
most likey to have been born in Crediton. Richard
and Joan settled in Crediton and had 10 children we know of, apparently 8 of
which survived to adulthood. Their ninth child Arthur Balkwell was born in Crediton
in1652.
In 1688, William of Orange landed at Brixham and marched with a grand procession to Exminster, where he sparked a revolution the resulted in him becoming King William III of England. Arthur was about 36 at the time, in the neighborhood, and may just have witnessed this momentous spectacle. About a year later, he married Johane Braund in Black Torrington, Devonshire on July 16, 1689.
Arthur and
Johane settled back into his hometown of Crediton and there had a son, Hugh Balkwill christened
November 18, 1691 and probably
more, but they are unknown to us. Arthur and Johane both apparently lived their
whole life in Crediton.
Hugh Balkwill, and his Black Torrington born wife Anne
Briend (Friend/Braund?) settled in Black Torrington where they had a daughter
Joan, who died young, and a son Arthur. Arthur
also married a Black Torrington girl, Joan Daw and they had two girls, Joan and
Elizabeth. Elizabeth was born in 1741 and her mother died in 1741—probably
from childbirth complications. After
his wife died, Arthur moved to Cornwall, near Penryn, where he married Elizabeth Lukey.
"St. Gluvias Marriages, Phillimore Parish Register: Arthur Balkwell.
mariner, & Elizabeth Lukey, 29 Nov., 1744".
The same register lists Thomas Lukey (perhaps brother of Elizabeth) as
marrying Jane Allen on May 1, 1744. St. Gluvias
is a small undistinguished Parish in the Southwest of Cornwall, sandwiched
between the Parishes of Mylor and Stithians, and is actually a part of the town
of Penryn, whose name comes from the Cornish pen rynn, “end of a point or
promontory”. At the time, Penryn was a shipbuilding center as well as an
active sea-port.
Arthur and his second wife, had our ancestor William
Balkwell christened in St. Gluvias September 7, 1750; another son Hugh in 1752
and a daughter Joan (Joanna) in 1745. More about William Balkwell later.
Information from Eileen Barkwell, of Bradford, Devon,
England: “Banns were read for John Bremacomb and Joanna Balkwell in February
of 1765.’ They never married.
Joanna was bannished to Bradford where the Braunds came from. Her mother and grandmother lived there. Joan and John had a son, John Bremacomb Barkwell in 1765. She
later married Thomas Bate, who died July 18, 1799 on the highway near Holsworth
from a Visitation of God.” There
is no record of children from Thomas and Joan (Joanna), but Eileen Barkwell
claims they had three. Eileen also
says she found that, for a time, Joanna Balkwell and her son John Bremacomb
Barkwell were living in the "poor house".
John Bremacomb Barkwell married Elizabeth Wonnacott, 1786 in Holsworth, Devon, England, and they had a son John Barkwell in 1789. Young John married Grace Hole in her home Parish of Cookbury in 1811 and there they had 10 children including Matthew in about 1834 or 35.
Matthew emigrated to Ontario, Canada, where he
married Mary Ann Griffin in Durham County and they had a son, George Albert
Barkwell in 1857. George Barkwell
married Mary Ann McKee in Norland, Ontario, where they had a son George Henry
and lived out their lives. George
Henry Barkwell and his wife Annie May Davis, in 1919, had a son Jack Davis
Barkwell, and they also remained in Norland throughout their lives.
In 1945, Jack Davis Barkwell, married Eileen Mary Smith,
who was born 1923 in Prestwich, Manchester England and most of their children
and grandchildren are still in Ontario, Canada.
BACK there in 1750, our
William Balkwell, was born in St. Gluvias, Cornwall to Arthur and
Elizabeth (Lukey) Balkwill. On February 8, 1771, William married Hannah Westlake, who was born
somewhere in Devonshire, and they settled in the little
Parish of Bratton Clovelly. Here William and Hannah had nine
children:
- Arthur Balkwell, born 1774, married Alice Ball 1799 at Bridestowe.
- Elizabeth Balkwell, born 1776
- Johanna Barkwill, born 1778, married John Skinner, 1799 at Bratton Clovelly.
- Mary Barkwill, born 1780, married James Martyn, 1801.
- John Barkwill, 1785, married Mary Cloyn in 1810.
- William Barkwill, 1783
- James Barkwill, christened November 25, 1787
- Ann Barkwill, 1789, married John Higgins, 1810 at Bratton Clovelly
- Hew (Hugh) Barckwell, 1793, married Peggy __________
In case you were wondering where all those hobbit-sounding place names are, CLICK HERE
William and Hannah’s
seventh child, James, married Mary Osborne in 1808 in Boyton Parish.
It is not clear where they were living, since the parish of Boyton is
actually partly in Cornwall and partly in Devon.
At any rate, they settled
down there to raise a family starting with John Barkwill in 1811.
Some time in 1840, James, his wife Mary and all their children emigrated
to Washington County, Ohio, by way of New York, the Eirie Canal and Stagecoach.
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