The Early History Of The Heckels Family

Heckels, or its alternative spelling Heckles, are a family who are known to have been living in North East England for at least three hundred years. Although a record exists of the marriage of  Marriage of a Margaret Heckles in Queniborough, Leicestershire in 1548 and others in the same area in the early seventeeth century it seems likely that these early records are mis-spellings of the Heckle surname which was common in the area at the time. The earliest consistent mention mention in records are of members of the family living in Newcastle in the early seventeenth century. The first recorded event is the marriage in 1638 of Elizabeth Heckles to Thomas Bates in St. Nicholas Church, Newcastle. Shortly after this other Heckles (or Heckels) are also recorded as living in Rothbury, Alnwick and Tynemouth.

Several members of the family worked in Newcastle as butchers. Andrew Heckles the son of John became an apprentice butcher in 1641 and was then elected a freeman of the city in 1649. At the same time Daniel Heckles, a wealthy merchant lived and owned property in the Groat Market and Pudding Chare. He was a freeman of the city and a member of the butchers guild. He and his wife Jane had at least four sons, Luke, James, John and Peter. When he died in 1666 he left the bulk of his property to his wife, for her lifetime and subsequently to his son Luke. His sons John, Peter and James all became apprenticed as butchers, Peter and James were subsequently elected as freemen. This part of the family tradition continued. James’ son John, also a butcher, was elected freeman in 1710 and his son James followed in his footsteps in 1771. Other members of the family followed different trades, Ralph a glazier was elected freeman in 1697 and his son Garret in 1720.

Around this time, one branch of the family were involved in the occupation which was to become the foundation of the family for over two hundred years. During this time, the history of the Heckels family mirrors the history of the Northumbrian coal field. The founder of this tradition George Heckles, born in Newcastle in about 1725, became a coal miner. At the age of twenty five on 8th September 1750 he married the twenty one year old Rebecca Harrison, who was also a native of Newcastle, in All Saints Church. Ten months later their first child Mary was born on 14 July 1751. Their first son George was born on 15 March 1753 and baptised in All Saints Church on 15 April. In the following years four more children were born, Elizabeth in 1755, Anne in 1758, Rebecca in 1760 and a second son Richard in 1764 when Rebecca was thirty five. Soon after the birth of Richard the family moved a few miles east along the Tyne to Wallsend. Throughout our story the spelling of the surname often varies, even for official records documenting different events for a single individual, but it is the descendants of George and Rebecca who have generally used the Heckels spelling.

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