The Hele - Hole - Hoel Family 1154 - 1970 A Genealogical History of One Branch By Brian Justin Hoel Member New England Historic Genealogical Society Founding Associate The National Historical Society September 1, 1971 @ Brian Justin Hoel 1971 Table of Contents Preface .•••. i Hele Family Arms. iii Crest of the USS William R. Hoel •.••.••••••••.•..••••••••• v Introduction ••..•..•. 1 The Heies of Devonshire •....••.••.•...•••••.•••..••••••••• 12 The Holes of Nottinghamshire. 17 The Holes Hoels of .Arner i ca • •••••••••• . 19 Jacob Ho le .. ~ ..................... 19 Daniel Hole, Senior . .................... 19 Daniel Hole, Junior . ................................ 21 Aaron Hoel .. ~ . 34 James B. Hoel ...••••..••••.•.•.•••••••••.•••••••.••.• 40 David H6el . ...... • ... -. 41 Alfred Grosvenor Hoel .•.•••.••.•••.••..•••.•..•••.•••. 42 David Holcomb Hoel................................... 46 Brian Justin Hoel.................................... 49 Kathleen Alice and Gregory Stewart Hoel •...•.•.••.••. 55 Footnotes •.•.••••••..• . 56 Appendices .••••••. 118 A. The Hoels of Wales and Brittany. 118 B. The First Hoe ls in America. • • . • . • • • • • • • • • . • . • • . 130 C. Zachariah Hole ................................... 135 D. Dr. ciohn Hole .................................... 139 E. William Hole. 146 F. Comparison of Family Records of Aaron and Jane. 149 Sayres Hoel with Census Records of Aaron Hoel and Aaron Hole G. Inter-relationship of the Hole and Sayre Families 150 ·,. Preface The author first became interested in the history of his family while reading a copy of his grandfather's paper Genealogical Records of One Branch of :the Hoel Family by Alfred Grosvenor Hoel -- written in 1925. This paper, however, took the family back only to 1800 and the author has never been able to overcome his curiosity regard­ ing the events of preceeding years. And there was another mystery to tease his mind: .Hoel is a name found both in Wales and Norway and no one was certain from exactly where this branch of the family had come. The author seriously began his attempt to answer these ques­ tions in late 1964. Since then he has visited a dozen libraries in various staies; examined over a·thousand books, documents, periodicals, and family papers; written several hundred letters; and discovered a number of previously unknown relatives. He has learned also a great deal of English and American history-- / perhaps one of the most rewarding results of his studies. Although many interesting facts about the family have been uncovered, many serious questions still remain. It is still not certain, for instance, that Jae.ob Hole, the imigrant to AJnerica, was in fact descended from the Rev. Hugh Hole of caunton, Notting­ hamshire, nor that the Hole family of Nottinghamshire was descended from the Hele family of Devonshire. This paper, therefore, might best be considered an interim progress report -- a consolidation of materials -- pending continuation of the search £or answers to the re~aining questions. Hopefully this paper will provide also the opportunity for criticism of the author's past work and methods. The author, therefor.e, is most desirous for members of the family, and other interested persons, to send him their comments, corrections, additions, and recommendations regarding this history. In the process of this study, the author has traced also the history of many collateral fillnilies related to this branch of the Hele-Hole-Hoel family. Most of this material is not included in this paper. Instead, the author has provided, where information is available, a brief outline of the ancestry, usually in the male line only, of the wife of each member of the family traced in this paper. Brian Justin Hoel 66 Hanover Street Newbury, Massachusetts 01950 617-462-6260 Hele Family Arms ~ir Roger Hele of Hele Heles of South Hele Heles of Holberton and Bovey Tracey and Wembury iii Sir Roger Hele of Hele ••• , A saltire vair, ••• in chief a Catharine wheel •••. (Tinctures--colors--unknown) Heles of south Hele and Bovey Tracey Arms: Gules, five fusils in bend ermine. Crest -- On a chapeau gules turned up ermine, an eagle, wings expanded argent, beaked and legged or. Heles of Holberton and Wembury Arms: Argent, five fusils in pale gules, the middle one charged ~ with a leopard's face or. Crest -- On a chapeau gules, turned up ermine, an eagle close argent. From Tuckett (see footnotes 22, 23, ·and 27) iv ~ Crest of the USS William R. Hoel (DID-13) V Crest. Description The USS HOEL (DDG-13) Crest was designed with the thought of offering a heraldic presentation of the history of the name and the purpose of the ship. The meaning of the symbolism is as follows: The Motto: "PRIMA INTER OPTIMAS" -- Meaning: First among the Leaders. The Chevron: Symbolic of the Ship's part in the defense of . the UNITED STATES. The Trident: Symbolic of Seapower. The Battle-axe: Symbolic of the agressive ability of the ship. The Crescent: Is the sign used to indicate that HOEL is the second ship to bear the name, the first ship being the DD-533, lost in the battle off Samar during World War II. The shield on shield design was selected as representing the fact that DDG-13 falls heir to the.fighting spirit and the - heroism displayed by DD-533. From the Commissioning Program June 16, 1962, Boston Naval Shipyard {see footnote 116 and ,appendices Hand I) vi INTRODUCTION I According to available evidence it appears that the family of which the author is a member is an old Anglo-Saxon family which '\ traces its ancestry back to the Hole family of county Nottingham · (Nottinghamshire) and possibly even further back to the Hele family of county Devon (Devonshire), England. 1 Of all the families in the west of England none has been so widely distributed in so many parishes as that of the Heles, but . in the time of King Henry II (1154-1189), it was at Hele in the parish of Bradninch, in the hundred of Harwidge (also spelled Hayridge and Harridge), north Devonshire that it seemed to have a fixed abode (about eight miles northeast of Exeter). Burke's Extinct Baroneticies states: Of this very ancient family, fruitful as the county of Devon is known to have been in distinguished houses, it may with truth be stated, that it was one of the most eminent, the most widely spread, and the most affluent which everi that quarter of England could boast of. Every printed history of Devon, whether Pole, Risden, Prince, or Pol'Whele, abundantly testifies the fact; while Westcott, Chapell, and other collectors, whose works have not yet ·been published, strengthen those accounts; still more fully confirmed by the different herald's visitations of Devon­ shire and Cornwall, preserved in the College of Arms, and in Harleian MSS. Heale, Heal, or Hele, a manor in the parish of Bradninch, in the Hundred of Harridge, in the North of Devon, was, from the earliest time of w~ich any record exists, and, as is presumed, from long before the Conquest, in the posses­ sion of the family, which had its dwelling there, and gave it name.2 Hele, today, is a very common place name in Devonshire. In addition to Hele in Bradninch, there are three other places named Hele on the county map.3 It is a Middle English name (pronounced H~al) derived from the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Heale, the dative -2- ~ singular of healh, which means a nook; a recess; a retired, secluded, or secret place; a hiding place; or a remote valley. 4 Bradninch, for instance, lies in a fold of the hills that rise west from the Culrn Valley to 850 feet at Christ Cross. 5 Within this fold it was natural for a manor or farmstead to be named Hele and for the family tha~ lived there to take the name of their manor as their surname, a common practice in Devonshire and other parts of England at that time. In other words, fue Hele family was a family living in a hele, a secluded place or remote valley. The other names used by this branch of the family, Hole and Hoel, are in many ways similar to Hele. Hole is an Anglo-Saxon place name meaning "dweller in the hollow. 11 In most cases it refers to a small hollow or 11 cambe 11 opening out of some wider valley. It is the dative of the Old English hol, holh. As a verb it is also a form of hele meaning 11 to hide, conceal; to .keep secret. 116 .Although Hoel, the present name of the family, is not Anglo­ Saxon, it is Germanic, as are all Anglo-Saxon names. Hoel is a very common spelling of a Norwegian surname which is derived from the place-name Hol, pronounced approximately hool. This name is quite common in Norway (also in Iceland) as a farm name. In fact, it is the name of farms in 27 parishes in the co~ntry, mostly in the eastern part, but also in the northwest and northern districts. It is a word which is quite well known from Old•Norwegian, Icelandic and present day Norwegian dialects. It means 11 low hill" or "insulated hill, especially roundish," and the reason why it is commonly used, as a farm name in Norway is that the farm buildings were frequently placed on small low hills overlooking the adjacent lands. The spelling "Hoel" with an~ is simply meant to indicate -3- that the Q sound is long, and does not affect the pronunciation. 7 It should be noted that the name Hoel is found also in Wales and Brittany, France. In both of these places, however, the name is not·a place name but rather a Brythonic patronymic surname meaning "the son of Hoel." Brittany was settled by Britons fleeing from Britain during the Anglo-Saxon invasions--the Welsh .and Bretons both speak the Brythonic form of the Celtic language-­ so it is to be expected that the name would appear in both places.