[Note: This article appeared in "The Bermudian" magazine in August 1993, and is being presented here as originally published. The first volumes of the histories of the Darrell-Dorrell-Dorrill Families referred to in the article have been subsequently published.]

The Darrell & Tucker
Families of Bermuda

by Gordon A. Reed

(On this enlightened chronicle, Mr. Gordon Reed, along with Mr. James Dorrill, who are presently working on the history of the Darrell family in book form, traces the relationship of the Darrells and Tuckers in Kent, England, thus setting the stage for their descendants who would play prominent roles in the colonization of Bermuda. Ed. note.)

Permission has recently been given in principle, by the Parochial Church Council of Little Chart, Kent, England, for the restoration and erection of an early seventeenth century monument on the north wall of the chancel, which is of significance to Bermuda. It commemorates John Darell (1540-1618) and his wife, Anne (Horne) whom he married in 1567. They were the grandparents of the John Darrell who was in Bermuda as Secretary to the Army in or before 1649, and who was the forebear of the numerous Darrell families who played a distinguished role in its development and history.

Furthermore, John and Anne were forebears of Tucker families of Bermuda through the marriage in 1598 of their daughter Mary to George Tucker of Milton-next-Gravesend, Kent, and of their daughter Elizabeth to Richard Sedley. Elizabeth Sedley, daughter of the latter, married another George Tucker, son of the above George by his first marriage, and their son (yet another George Tucker) married Frances St. George, a surname which was to occur a number of times in Bermuda, and taken as a forename in later generations.

The monument was originally fixed to the east wall of St. Catherine's Chapel, beneath which was the Darell family vault. This was otherwise known as the Darell Chapel, until in 1944 the church was destroyed by a flying bomb, one of the many pilotless aircraft which the Nazis dispatched from France with an explosive warhead and a calculated fuel supply sufficient to take it to its target.

Several other monuments to the Darells from 1438 to 1694 adorned the chapel, but few survived unscathed. One which did is the altar tomb of Sir John Darell (1436-1509) depicting the knight in armour with his head resting on the helmet, crest coronet and Saracen's head, which represents the crest surmounting the Darell coat of arms, and his feet resting on a crowned lion, another reference to their arms which comprise a blue shield on which is a gold lion rampant with a silver crown. 

This, and fragments of other monuments, were incorporated in the new church built in the village on a different site in 1956. Recently, it was found that a substantial part of the monument to John and Anne had survived and held in store during the intervening years.

A beautifully executed painting of it forms part of an illuminated pedigree measuring fifteen feet, by four feet two inches which was prepared by the College of Arms in London for Sir Robert Darell in 1637. The pedigree records the Darell family from about 1200 at Sessay, a village to the northwest of the City of York, which they owned until about 1505 when a daughter outlived her brothers, and the property passed to her husband Sir Guy Dawnay.

The huge document, which had a further five feet added to it in the 1830s, is now held by the Kent Archives at Maidstone and has been photographed and transcribed in its entirety. A photograph of the monument to John and Anne, taken about 1860 (in situ), has been recently purchased by Ashford Museum as part of an album of photographs of that time.

The monument has the effigies of John and Anne kneeling on either side of an altar, on which is a lectern with their prayer books. Beneath them is a slate slab on which is engraved their family of eleven boys kneeling to the left of an altar, and five girls to the right. Beneath this is another tablet with their names, which include James, the fourth son who became the father of the first John Darrell in Bermuda, together with Mary and Elizabeth who were the forebears of the Tuckers of Bermuda.

Anne, their mother, was a daughter of Robert Horne. He was a fanatical Protestant who had been in exile during the reign of the Roman Catholic Queen Mary, and on her death returned to England and was consecrated Bishop of Winchester. This appointment carried with it the honour of being Prelate of the Order of the Garter.

The illuminated pedigree takes the family back continuously to 1410 at Little Chart, when an earlier John Darell acquired, and rebuilt, a residence at nearby Calehill, to become with his successors, lords of the manor. Before that, the Darell family seat had been at Sessay from the twelfth century, and their descent can be traced from Sir William Darell who occurs in the roll of Battle Abbey as a supporter of William the Conqueror in his invasion of England, and who was knighted at York in 1069 after helping to suppress a rebellion of Yorkshiremen and the Scots who came to their assistance, when the city was burned. He was rewarded with the possessions of Etheldred of Brodsworth and became known as Sir William Darell of Brodsworth, Yorkshire.

Research into the Tucker family of England, Bermuda and the United States of America, etc., culminated in the publication in 1991 of "The Descendants of William Tucker of Throwleigh, Devon" by Robert Dennard Tucker of Atlanta, Georgia. He was in Kent in October last [1992] to open the Tucker Room, part of a new church hall built at Milton-next-Gravesend where his ancestors have been lords of the manor from 1572 to the English Civil War in the 1640s, during which some of them emigrated to Bermuda.

A copy of the Tucker pedigree, prepared for him by the College of Arms, from about 1500 to date, includes his forebears in Bermuda and now hangs in the room with an appropriate inscription describing Milton's connection with the foundation and development of Virginia and Bermuda.

Daniel Tucker, who was baptised at Milton on April 10, 1575, was brother-in-law of the Mary Darell who married George Tucker in 1598, a marriage commemorated with a handsome silver cup which survives in Bermuda. Daniel was in Virginia from 1607 to 1613 and became the second Governor (first under the Somers Island Company) of Bermuda in 1616. His relations began to settle in Bermuda soon after the Royalist cause in England was defeated, and King Charles I executed in 1649.

There have been a number of subsequent marriages between Tuckers and Darells in Bermuda, and the families have been closely associated in civic affairs and business.

Research into the English Darells has reached an advanced stage and a book is being printed in Georgia on the descendants of Sir William Darell of Brodsworth. An ambitious trilogy is projected with a second volume on the Darrells of Bermuda, and a third on the South Carolina connection.

Research is proceeding with the Darrells of Bermuda and numerous descent charts containing hundreds of names have already been drafted with the assistance, gratefully acknowledged, of Messrs. Owen H. Darrell, Brian Northcott, John Cox and Mrs. A. C. Hollis Hallett in Bermuda; and of Messrs. Robert Dennard Tucker of Atlanta, Aubrey Morris of Alpharetta and James S. Dorrill of Augusta, all of Georgia. (The latter is founder of The Dorrill-Dorrell-Darrell Society.)

It is apparent from the various marriages of Darrell ladies, that many who bear surnames at present to be found in Bermuda, have earlier Darell forebears.