This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Cull, Miller Classification: queries Message Board URL: http://boards.rootsweb.com/localities.northam.canada.newfoundland.notredamebay/17.19.13.1.1.2.1.1.1.1.1/mb.ashx Message Board Post: Hi. Yes, I'm sure Minstead was their "original" parish (though original ia a big word). I suspect my first Richard of Burley was the Richard son of Robert Cull baptised in Minstead in 1704 since he doesn't seem to show in the later Minstead records. The Minstead Culls were supplying small timber parts to the navy in Portsmouth so the connection with the sea probably goes back some way. The name Maurice was a trademark of the Minstead Culls, not at all common in the area as a whole. It has in fact led me to a totally unproven theory about how the Culls came to Minstead, but more of that later. So your 1771 Maurice Cull was very probably from Minstead; the first Maurice Cull of Burley (Joseph's brother) married and had family in Burley, but he didn't marry until 1776 so it is possible he had been at sea, and perhaps spent some time in Newfoundland, before that. If there were Culls going out to Newfoundland directly from Minstead then it will complicate the picture though they and the Burley Culls would very much have regarded each other as cousins at that time. There were certainly also Culls from other parts. I have downloaded the will of a John Cull of Newfoundland from the National Archives website, and he came from East Lulworth in Dorset. East Lulworth is at the east side of a peninsula known as the Isle of Purbeck, bounded on the west side by Poole harbour. Purbeck is famous for its marble, and there have been Culls in the Isle of Purbeck since at least the 1490s, when Henry VII wrote to the constable of Corfe Castle in Purbeck to complain about reports that he had taken bribes from local men to hunt the deer in the royal park there, including from one Henry Cull, marbler. The Purbeck Culls didn't go in for the name Maurice and they've certainly been separate from the Minstead Culls 35 miles away for some centuries. Whether t! here is any connection in the very dim past, I don't know. I haven't yet followed up on it as I've only just discovered the Newfoundland connection, but there are a few New Forest wills in the Hampshire Record Office where the testator is classified in the document description as "of Newfoundland", and they could provide interesting clues. Henry Miller was actually the man to whom Joseph Cull mortgaged Black Bush and another property in 1793; Henry is described as "seafaring man of Ringwood". The purpose of the transaction seems to have been to enable Joseph to raise £30 on the property. I wonder whether it may have been in connection with sending sons out to Newfoundland - I am very interested indeed to hear that Henry Miller's was a well known name in Newfoundland. There seem to have been only a limited number of Culls in the New Forest area, even in Minstead if you go back into the 17th century, and I have a total unproven theory regarding their previous origin. The surname is most common in Gloucestershire - in fact Culls are two a penny in that county - and the manors of Minstead and Bisterne belonged in the 15th century to the Gloucestershire Berkeleys of Beverstone, junior cousins of the Lords Berkeley. Beverstone Castle lies outside Tetbruy, an area full of Culls, and the trademark name of the Berkel! ey family is Maurice. In fact, two of the Berkeleys who owned Minstead were named Maurice. I believe that Joseph Cull and Henry Miller were probably first cousins. The Richard son of Robert whom I have tentaively identified as the Burley Richard had a sister Ruth, and in 1737 a Ruth Cull married a James Miller in Ringwood. I would be very happy to send you my lists of cole(s) entries from the Ringwood register, though there may be nothing new there. I'll also have a look at the notes I made from Hardcastle's book Records of Burley - I was still wondering whether they were the same family myself when ?I read it so I may have taken down something of interest to you. I'll email you with the stuff directly. In return, I'd be very very interested in anything you can provide me on the Hampshire Newfoundland connection. [email protected]