A few nights ago, I ventured to find out if we are related to Sir Robert Peel, former British prime minister in the 1800’s from which the “bobbies” or “peelers” (police officers) in England draw their nickname.It turns out that we are related to Sir Robert Peel through his great-great grandfather, Robert Peel (b. 1646). We are descended through his son John, while Sir Robert Peel is descended through his son William.
Our Peel ancestral home is in the north central section of England known as Craven in the Yorkshire Dells region, on the border of Yorkshire to the east and Lancashire to the west. According to Wikipedia, the word craven is Celtic and related to the Welsh word “craf,” which is garlic – as there was supposed to be a lot of wild garlic growing around the area in the Middle Ages.
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Craven
The Peels are Saxons by heritage and were “Peeles” until the aforementioned Robert cut off the extra “e” from the name, for whatever reason. The name was originally “Pele” in Medieval times and referred to the type of fortification during the feudal system that protected the people from raids (the word pele means fortification or safe place). These types of castles or fortified farm houses are still called Pele or peel castles, and are confined to northern England were Scotsmen would cross the border for occasional raids. There is an actual Peel Tower near Craven, from which area our ancestor William moved around 1600. The tower itself was built in the early-1300’s.
Peel Tower, Yorkshire
Benjamin Peel’s ancestors kept moving south and west from Craven and ended up around Blackburn in Lancashire, toward the Isle of Man and Ireland.
Bolton-By-Bowland
It paid off to have Sir Robert in the family, because interest in his family line gives us information back to Thomas Peele, who was born around 1412 in Bolton-By-Bowland in Yorkshire.
Bolton-By-Bowland
