Pete Verrall (P.J.Verrall@ukc.ac.uk), of Canterbury, England told us that De Veral, Deveral, De Veril or Deveril was a common name among the Normans. There are references to DeVeril or DeVeral around East Kent particularly at some of the castles in the area such as Walmer Castle. There is a Longbridge Deverill in Wiltshire. De Veral was given Herefordshire (or was it Kent) in return for supporting William the Conquerer. Well, William is a very popular Verrall(s) christian name according to our records! Ask my Dad!

Bill Verralls (verralls@bigpond.com) of Launceston Tasmania said that his mother (our Auntie Lucy) would say our family were Flemish weavers who fled to England to avoid religious prosecution. The meaty part is that one of the daughters ended up as the mistress of Charles the Second. He also added that a Verrall was the last person hanged in Geelong Goal, before its closure in the late fifties or early sixties.

Barry Verrall (verrall@cnw.com), from Washington state, said that he been told by his grandfather, Albert Verrall, who emigrated to the Pacific Northwest, that the Verralls originated from France. He used to joke with him that one of them swam the English Channel to get to a long lost girlfriend. Albert was born in Mattingham, England.

It may be that Huguenots fleeing Flanders, landed at say Rye, Seaford or Newhaven and adopted or anglicised their name to a local sounding name. That could be the origin of the Verralls version. Searches through lists of Huguenots have so far found no Verrall(s). For more on Huguenots click http://www.kopower.com/~jimchstn/timeline.htm.