PEOPLE, PLACES & GENERATIONS
Our History
From northern England to family lives across the world.
Our family history survives through names in a Bible, entries in church records, letters between relatives, and the patient work of bringing those fragments together.
This account follows selected people and events recorded in David William Storrs’s family workbook. It begins with the question of where the name itself came from.
Enter the Vikings?
David’s research records a family belief that Storrs did not begin as an English name. In his notes he wrote that it is of Scandinavian origin, reaching Britain with the Vikings through the islands of the north, and later with the Normans: long before the surname as we know it became established.
There is some historical geography to support the idea. The earliest ancestor in the family tree, William Storrs (born 1523), is associated with Sutton cum Lound in Nottinghamshire. Nottinghamshire lay within the Danelaw, the large part of England where Scandinavian settlers made their homes during the Viking Age. Even the village name Lound has Scandinavian roots: it comes from the Old Norse word for a grove or small wood.
The surname itself points in more than one direction. Storr can be traced to old words for size and strength, such as the Old Norse stórr, but Storrs is also linked with northern English places named for brushwood or young woodland. The Storrs Name page explores both explanations.
Whether our family inherited its name from a mighty Scandinavian ancestor, a patch of English woodland, or some combination of the two remains an open question. The linguistic clues are certainly intriguing, and they lead somewhere unexpected. Read about the Stoors of Middle-earth →
Family workbook: Storrs, AB21 (David’s note on the origin of the name). Surname meanings: see The Storrs Name page and its sources.
Early roots at Sutton cum Lound
The earliest section names William Storrs of Sutton cum Lound and his wife Dorothea. William’s death is recorded as August 1557, but his birth year differs between versions: 1523 in the main tree and 1529 in the earlier one.
The earlier sheet is explicitly marked “un-substantiated” and mentions a missing 106-year link. These early names are part of the preserved research, with their uncertainties still attached.
Family workbook: Storrs, A5–A8; Sheet3, A1–F7.
A HOUSE THAT BEARS OUR NAME
Storrs Hall
Across the Pennines, near Arkholme in Lancashire, stands Storrs Hall. Wills and local histories show that a Storrs family owned it for generations, until Adam Storrs’s will passed it to his daughter Anne and the Askew family in the early 1700s. The name stayed on the house.
Whether those owners share ancestors with the Sutton cum Lound family has not been proved, but the question has fascinated the family for years: from an old photograph kept by Jean Guy, to a wrong turning at Windermere and a cup of tea at the Arkholme gatehouse.
Read the story of Storrs Hall →Cusworth and Doncaster
In the eighteenth-century records, Robert Storrs of Cusworth appears as a land agent to G. Wrightson of Cusworth Hall. His marriage to Mary Clarke also brought an inheritance from the Clarke estate, according to the workbook.
Cusworth Hall provides a surviving setting for this part of the story. Historic England dates the present house to 1740–1745, with later work by James Paine. Richard Woods laid out its landscape park in the early 1760s. Today the hall and grounds offer a tangible connection with the Yorkshire landscape in which these family members lived.
The workbook later records John Storrs of Doncaster’s marriage to Elizabeth Robertshaw on 3 September 1800.
Family workbook: Storrs, A57–A64 and G61–G65. Hall and park context: Historic England: Cusworth Hall. The listing provides context for the place; Robert’s employment is recorded in the family workbook.
The Townsend connection
On 27 February 1827, Dr Robert Storrs married Martha Townsend at Old Church, St Pancras, London. The marriage connects this account with a second body of family research.
The Townsend sheet says its information was copied from a family Bible printed in 1615, including an account drawn from the Witney register in 1830. It also notes that some older records were imperfect or difficult to read.
Family workbook: Storrs, M61–M66; Townsend, B2–B3.
Journeys beyond England
The workbook records Samuel Storrs’s migration to America in 1663. Across later generations, the Storrs name travelled much further still—and one early Australian arrival has a story that begins with stolen milk.
Ellen’s unexpected Australian chapter
Long before our branch settled in Melbourne, Ellen Storrs of Lancashire was sent halfway around the world. Convicted of stealing milk, she received seven years’ transportation: a startlingly harsh price for such a small theft. After being held at Lancaster Castle, she sailed from Spithead aboard the Nile on 21 June 1801. The voyage took her via Rio de Janeiro to Port Jackson, where she arrived on 14 December—nearly six months after leaving England.
Ellen later built a family life in Sydney, and her certificate of freedom is dated 8 February 1811. She may have been the first Storrs to reach Australia, although we have yet to establish that distinction. Whether her Lancashire family connects with our own branch is another open question. A distant cousin somewhere along the line is possible, but the shared surname alone cannot supply the missing link. For now, she is an intriguing fellow traveller in the wider Storrs story.
Two journeys, two ships, one name
Here is a curious echo across the generations: Nile appears twice in these overseas adventures. Ellen’s ship carried her to Australia in 1801; David’s tree records Rev William Townsend Storrs arriving in India aboard another Nile on 6 October 1856, having married Sarah Coopland that May. The name makes a lovely coincidence, but the vessels were different. Ellen’s Nile had been wrecked on 22 November 1833 at Oesel, now Saaremaa in Estonia—almost 23 years before William’s Indian arrival. The same name sailed into two Storrs stories, on different ships and towards very different new lives.
Our branch reaches Australia
William and Sarah’s son, Rev William Townsend Coopland Storrs, was born in India, but his road to Australia ran through England. He attended Bradford Grammar School and entered Queens’ College, Cambridge, in 1882. After graduating in 1885, his ministry took him to Silloth in Cumberland, Hampstead in London and, from 1889 to 1892, Stoke-next-Guildford in Surrey.
By 2 February 1893 he had taken up an appointment at St Stephen’s, Richmond, Melbourne. This is where the Australian chapter of David’s branch begins. In 1895 he married Adelaide Laura Propsting, joining the two families whose descendants would carry the story into the next century.
Family workbook: Storrs, A42–A44, R85–R89 and V93–W98. Ellen’s story: Tatham History Society: Transported from Tatham. Ship history: Nile: the 1801 convict ship and its later wreck. William’s education and parish appointments: Cable Clerical Index, pages 2808–2809. Read William and Adelaide’s story →
Queensland and the next generations
Before his Queensland family life, William Townsend Storrs was a young medical student in uniform. A wartime embarkation roll records him aged 21, with an enlistment date of 8 March 1918. His son David remembered his military service and medical history with pride. Read William’s story →
William Townsend Storrs married Phyllis Parkin Thornthwaite at Christ Church, Bundaberg, on 1 February 1930. Their son David William Storrs’s entry records a move to Brisbane in 1961 and his marriage to Marilyn Ann Lofts in 1964.
These entries bring the record into the lives of more recent generations, linking the earlier research with the family who continue to preserve it today.
Family workbook: Storrs, AB93–AB97 and AG113–AG118. David is placed in the next generation beside William and Phyllis in the workbook.
DAVID WILLIAM STORRS’S RESEARCH
Preserving the family record
What began with an old family Bible became a remarkable journey through centuries of Storrs family history.
When David William Storrs inherited the family Bible, he discovered that its pages were full and the record was missing the sixth generation onwards. Rather than allow the family story to stop there, he set about extending it — a task that would occupy him for many years.
His research took him through the Queensland State Library, historical publications including Burke’s genealogical works and A History of Lancashire, parish records, and countless letters and emails exchanged with fellow family historians.
The earliest generations were pieced together with the help of research by Charles Townsend, the writings of Charles Storrs, and contributions from John Bjorge of Wisconsin. Other family historians, including Michael Storrs of Rockhampton, Peter Storr of Ontario, Peter Storrs of Dorset, Dr John Storrs of Devon, Dr John Tooth of Hobart and Jean Guy of Melbourne, helped connect branches of the family scattered across the world.
Each contribution added another piece to a puzzle spanning centuries, transforming what began as one man’s curiosity into a remarkable collaborative effort.
The resulting family tree traces the recorded Storrs lineage back to William Storrs, born in 1523, associated with Sutton cum Lound in Nottinghamshire, England. David also explored the possibility of much earlier Scandinavian origins, perhaps reaching back to the Viking settlements of Britain — an intriguing theory that remains part of the family’s ongoing historical investigation.
David understood that family history is never truly finished. Names were sometimes recorded differently, dates could be uncertain, and connections between branches were not always clear. As he observed in his original notes, even children within the same family could have their surnames recorded differently, depending on the spelling abilities of the local parish priest.
Rather than conceal these gaps, he documented what he knew and acknowledged what remained to be discovered. His research was continually revised as new information emerged, and he welcomed contributions from anyone who could help fill the missing pieces.
Today, the family workbook stands as a testament not only to generations of Storrs ancestors, but also to David’s patience, curiosity and determination to preserve their stories. The interactive family tree builds upon that foundation, making his years of research accessible to descendants and relatives around the world.
What began as an effort to fill the missing pages of a family Bible has become a legacy for generations yet to come.
Family workbook: Storrs, A1–A3, AA3–AB10 and AB13–AB21; and David’s printed family tree.
Following the story
The timeline draws out selected dates from this research. The family tree shows the detailed connections between people: everyone in David’s workbook, from William Storrs of Sutton cum Lound to the present day. You can search it for anyone named on this page.