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Graham-Yooll
History
Andrew G-Y, our patriarch, on his throne Though
small in number, there are Graham-Yoolls living in Scotland, England, Italy,
Argentina, Canada and the United States. Although stories
of the name's origin differ, the commonly accepted version has been
that it was created after the marriage of Helen, the divorced daughter
of the 3rd Duke of Montrose, to a commoner early in the nineteenth
century. What we know is that a James Yooll married a Helen
Graham.
But which Helen
Graham?
A certain David Graham, born in 1675, of Cote Farm, Eskdalemuir, married a Helen Beatty. Their son John of the same
address had a daughter, Helen, who some contend may have been the
Helen whom James Yooll married.
The Yoolls of Scotland spell their names in countless ways, Yule, Yuill
and Zuill being among the more common versions. The original
spelling may have been Zuill, supporting the view that they originated
as a family of Dutch merchants settled in Scotland. A 17th
century marriage record shows an Andrew Yooll, a merchant born in 1592,
this may be the first of of our misspelled Yooll line.
In all likelihood
that
Andrew Yooll
was the forebear of Andrew Yooll, the 18th century Scottish
merchant who fathered, James Yooll, born in 1794 in Dumfriesshire, who married
the mysterious Helen..
Their son
Andrew Graham-Yooll, a
manufacturing chemist and oil merchant born in 1820, was the first to
use the hyphenated name. He
had homes in England (Beaconsfield) and Scotland (Edinburgh). His photo shows him as a Captain in the
London Scottish Volunteer Company). Since he obtained this commission in 1873
at age 53, we can
assume enlisted more for social than military need. The double-barreled name, often created to preserve a supposedly
aristocratic connection, was symptomatic of the snobbery of Victorian Britain.
While most
Graham-Yoolls assume they belong to the Grahams of Montrose,
the Dumfriesshire connection raises the possibility the could belong
to the Grahams of Menteith.
Only a few family members today have any concrete ties with the
Scotland of their ancestry, and so the question becomes of limited
interest.
SHOCK NEWS UPDATE! Genealogical research by kinsmen Julian Lea-Jones
and Toby Price indicates that our Graham family may be descendents of notorious 16th century
Border reivers, raiding and making mayhem among the farmers of
Northumberland whenever the spirit happened to strike.
About
the
Grahams it was said, "probably the most troublesome family on the
frontier".
Research
continues and more palatable histories may yet emerge.
Toby puts
forward a well-reasoned argument that the family might stem from the
Grahams of Esk. But don't get too complacent over
that piece of news. They're described as "arrant thieves"
and "both to England and Scotland outlawed"
More about the Border Reivers |
