Origin of the Name Richbell
The ancient history of the name
Richbell was found in the allfamilycrests.com archives. This name is found in many ancient manuscripts in England . Examples of such are a Richebelle Pirse who was recorded in the 'Fines Rolls' during the reign of Edward I. A John Richebele was recorded in the 'Close Rolls' during the reign of Edward IV. A Rebecca Richbell was baptised at the Church of St. James, Clerkenwell, in the year 1674. A Richard Manvell and Ann Richbell were married at St. George's Church, Hanover Square, London, in the year 1766. Names were recorded in these ancient documents to make it easier for their overlords to collect taxes and to keep a record of the population at any given time. When the overlords acquired lands by either force or as gifts from their rulers, they created charters of ownership for themselves and their vassals.
In Ireland this name and its variants were introduced into Ulster Province by settlers who arrived from England and Scotland , especially during the seventeenth century. It was the 'Plantations of Ireland ' in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that marked the end of Gaelic supremacy in Ireland . While the influx of settlers in the wake of the earlier Anglo-Norman invasion of the twelfth century resulted in a full integration into Irish society of the new arrivals, the same never occurred with the Ulster Planters who maintained their own distinct identity.
The Richbell coat of arms came into existence centuries ago. The process of creating coats of arms (also often called family crests) began in the eleventh century although a form of Proto-Heraldry may have existed in some countries prior to this. The new art of Heraldry made it possible for families and even individual family members to have their very own coat of arms, including all Richbell descendants.