The Beaglehole/Begelhole Family Surname Origin
ORIGIN OF THE SURNAME
The name was one of about 14 different spellings of the surname. Until about the early 1800's it was spelt as BEAGLEHOLE, when one of the branches appeared to drop the 'A'.
The earliest person mentioned is Peter BEAGLEHOLE, also known as Petrus BEGGELHOLLE, b abt1574. However other spellings emerged over the years, such as BEAUGLEHOLE, BEAUGHLEHOLE, BEAUGLEHALL, BUGLEHOLE, to mention just a few. This could have happened due to illiteracy, registrars spellings, or simply laziness, or wanting to be different to others. There may have been family disputes, which necessitated disassociation from others. This is something we will never know.
Unconfirmed information, is that Petrus was believed to be a Spanish soldier/sailor from the Spanish Armada, and that he was shipwrecked on the coast of Cornwall.
If Petrus was born in abt 1574, he would have been 14 at the time of the Armada. Maybe he was a cabin boy. He was married in 1598 which would put his age at 24, so the Armada story COULD be true!
As a further update on the name, I reproduce the text below from an email sent to me by Pauline Eastwood of Family Crests in Croydon, Victoria, Australia. In it she quotes:
"I have a different slant on it ....... A Handbook of Cornish Surnames by G. Pawley White, as I have quoted from before, in the Forward says "There are those who think the (Cornish surnames) Santo, Jago, Clemo etc. must be survivors of the Spanish Armada. (No ship of the Armada came ashore on the Cornish coast)".
I have also read about the Spanish Armada.
The English followed the Armada eastwards up the English Channel and when the battle was won, blocked the Spanish ships way back down the channel. Because of this, to escape the English, the remnants of the Armada sailed up the East coast of England, round the top of Scotland and down the West coast of Ireland, trying to get back to Spain. Many of the ships, badly damaged in battle and sailing against the prevailing winds, were wrecked on the Irish coast and survivors are known to have come ashore there, but not in Cornwall.
I think early ancestors of this family may well have come from Europe, but they may have come by the usual trade routes between Brittany and Cornwall.
Here is the screed I wrote years ago.
The Cornish surname of Begelhole is a celticization of the French surname Begole, which stems from the Gascoyne area of France.
Cornwall has close racial and linguistic ties with Brittany in France.
The name however, may be Germanic in origin.
Germanic influence can often be found in the surnames of France. To add credence to this we find variants of the name in Germany, such as Biegelben, a name found in Hesse and the Tyrol. Another variant is Behagel, found in Brabant, Holland and also in Germany.
The surname of Begelhole in Cornwall, is said to be an occupation name, 'bugel hal' meaning 'herdsman of the moor'."
There is a Beaglehole Family Search here created by Diane Cummings where details of the two main branches of the tree can be found.
Please refer to Site Update History for our latest updates
Ian Bell,
Melbourne, Australia
March 2011.