| Bramhills in Holland?Whilst researching the Bramhill name, we came across vague mentions of a link with the Netherlands - one source said the Epworth Bramhills were Dutch and they came from Holland to help Cornelius Vermuyden drain the Lincolnshire fens.Certainly there were Dutch settlers in the Isle of Axholme at that time and later, when immigrants fled religious persecution.There is also a record of a Juliana Bramholle in Manchester in the 1600s.Recently, genealogist Dr Anthony Bosschaert got in touch with Bramhill.net. Dr Bosschaert's connection is the other way around - a Bramhill variant who settled in the Netherlands, which may indicate a Dutch family that chose to return home.Dr Bosschaert is descended from a Dick (Dirck) van Brummelen and believes he has traced his family tree back to the de Mascis of the Manor of Bramhall, Cheshire.Dr Bosschaert thinks Dirk was the son of John Bramhall, alderman of Pontefract who settled in the Netherlands and ran a brick kiln. Dirk's coat of arms was set in a church window (destroyed but fortunately copied) in Ravenswaay, Gelderland, and that coat of arms is similar to the one presented by the Hall of Names.• If you are looking at general Dutch links with the Isle of Axholme, you may be interested in:
:: the Diary of Abrahm de la Pryme, held at the Humanities Reference Library, William Brown Street, Liverpool
:: Flemings in the Fens | | |
