The Reffell Family - 1500s & 1600s

The family is believed to have originated as Huguenots. These were Protestants who became the centre of a political and religious upheaval in Catholic France and the Low Countries during the 1500's and 1600's. Most of the newcomers quickly adapted to their new country and within a few generations a large number had become converted to the Church of England. Others kept their faith and remained Calvinists and other nonconformist religions, but all remained violently anti-Catholic.

The surname appears first in the parish registers for the United Kingdom in the county of Surrey. The earliest recorded instance found so far being the baptisms of Henry (1572), Alice (1576) and Ellen (1578) to Anthony Reffell and an unrecorded spouse at St Mary Worplesdon.

In the next century are baptisms at Ewhurst (1659) and just over the Sussex border there are baptisms, marriages and burials between 1680 and 1714 at St Laurence Lurgashall.