James Fitchett Burrell: From Fareham to Frimley Manor

James Fitchett Burrell was born in Fareham in 1794 and became part of a substantial nineteenth-century family with interests in both Hampshire and Surrey.

In 1816 he married Joanna Waller at Fareham. The couple had a large family, including James, Charlotte, Stephen, William, Thomas, Charles, Emma and Emily. Their family remained closely connected with Fareham for many years.

Burrell lived at Belvoir House in Fareham, where he died on 24 January 1858, aged sixty-four. His death was recorded in the Gentleman’s Magazine, which described him as “J. F. Burrell, esq.” of Belvoir House.

The family also had important connections with Surrey. James Fitchett Burrell was associated with Frimley Manor, and Surrey tithe records show him holding land in Frimley, Cranleigh and Worplesdon. His daughter Charlotte Joanna Burrell was later described as the daughter of James Fitchett Burrell “of Belvoir House, Fareham, and of Frimley Manor, Surrey”.

The family’s presence around Fareham can also be traced through land records. Later nineteenth-century railway plans refer to land belonging to representatives of the late James Fitchett Burrell near Redlands Lane and the railway south of Fareham station.

Burrell’s story is therefore less dramatic than those of the admirals and soldiers commemorated in the church, but it reveals another side of nineteenth-century Fareham: prosperous local families whose lives were tied to houses, land, marriage and property across southern England.

His memorial at St Peter & St Paul preserves the name of a Fareham-born man whose family remained woven into the social and physical landscape of the town long after his death.