According to a history of the English Linnell family assembled by John Linnell of Lincolnshire, England, the known history of the Linnell family goes back to the 11^th century, and is centered in the area of Northamptonshire, about 50 miles northwest of London. John's research, in turn, uses George Baker's history of the area, titled "The History and Antiquities of the County of Northhampton". The work was published in volumes between 1822 and 1841, and contains several references to the early Linnell Family. According to Baker, the family in the early years was centered in the villages of Kislingbury and Farthingstone, and "Lunel Manor" was located in Kislingbury. Walter Lunel was Lord of the Manor of Farthingstone in 1181.

The Linnells were of Norman extraction. Baker writes that "The manor was granted out within a generation of the (Norman) Conquest, to a family indifferently written "Luvell" and Lunnell" for the letters V and N in early records being perfectly similar, and were convertible to either, at the discretion of the subsequent transcribers." This would date the granting of the estate to about 1090, give or take a few years. John Linnell's history also notes that Baker refers to he family by the name "de Lunell," a French name that implies that they came from a town named Lunell, but no such town is located in Normandy. John Linnell has studied the list of knights and others who accompanied William the Conqueror from Normandy, and there is no evidence of anyone with the name of Lunell or de Lunell. John Linnell suggests that our ancestors waited to see which side won the war before making the trip! The Lunell family was associated with the Keynes family, which held many lands in Northamptonshire. The Keynes family came from Cahanges, France, with William the Conqueror, and is best known for the famous economist, Lord Keynes.

Because of the scarcity of records, the genealogical link between the Lunell family and the modern Linnell family has not been traced. However, John Linnell wrote that the circumstantial evidence is strong, and that the link has long been accepted. In today's telephone directories, for example, the name Linnell is found most commonly in the area near the Northamptonshire town that were once the home of the family named de Lunell.

John Linnell's history of the English Linnell family includes information on some of the most prominent of the English Linnell family. Possibly the best-known Linnell was John Linnell, the romantic period painter who was a student of Benjamin West. He lived from 1792 to 1882 and lived for many years in Redhill, Surrey. The poet William Blake was a friend, and visited the Linnell home often. After Blake's death, his widow Catherine came to live with the Linnells for a year or more, and the Linnells helped Catherine to sell some prints made by Blake. Works by John Linnell can be found in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and in the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Other famous English Linnells include William (c. 1703-1763) and John Linnell (1729-1796). These Georgian period father and son craftsmen were renowned for their furniture design and construction. The Linnells made furniture in a wide variety of styles, ranging from Palladian style work through Chinese Chippendale furniture and Adam style pieces to the plainer neoclassical mode of the Regency style. Although there is no clear link between the furniture and the painter Linnells, some kind of family relationship is highly probable.

One of the interesting facts about the Linnell family in America is that, until relatively recently, all of the Linnells in the country were descendents of English immigrant Robert Linnell, whose story is told in the book by Rachel Linnell Wynn. However, we know that there is also a group of American Linnells who are of Swedish descent. Is there any connection? The original Linnell family in England came from Norman stock, and many of the Normans in turn are descended from Viking invaders of Normandy. Could there be any relationship to the Vikings or other Scandinavians? One can visualize our great grandfathers roaming around the countryside in longboats, sailing to Greenland, and along with other Norsemen, settling many areas of the British Isles such as York and parts of Ireland.

Evidence on this issue was sent to us from John Linnell of Lincolnshire, England. John has kindly shared information that he received in the mid-1980s from Daniel Lihnell of Stocksund, Sweden. John had learned of the Swedish Lihnell family, and sought to learn the history of that family. The surnames Linnell, Lunell, Lihnell, Linell, and possibly other spellings are found in several parts of Sweden.

According to the correspondence to John from Daniel Lihnell, until the mid-nineteenth century, most Swedes did not have family names. People were generally known by their Christian names and a patronymic name, such as Peterson, Olafson, etc. Occasionally there would be an addition of some reference to the family domicile or profession. Family names were generally limited to clergy, members of university communities, and other members of educated classes. In many cases, family names of the educated elite were Latinized. Thus, a student from Linneryd might adapt the Latinized name Linnelius. In many cases, the Latinized suffix was dropped, leaving a name such as Linnel, with the accent on the last syllable. Similarly, the family name of the founder of the Nobel Prize, Alfred Nobel, was once Nobelius, taken from the name of the parish where the family lived, Nobbelov, then shortened to Nobel.

With the advent of the industrialization and urbanization, there was a trend to assume family names among the general population. Many of the newly assumed names were made of two syllables. In many cases, people adopted names with no relationship to the original family with the given name. Daniel Lihnell stated in correspondence that there were 27 Linnells in the Stockholm phone book in the mid-1980s. As far as Daniel knows, he is unrelated to all of them. In the case of his family, the name Lihnell was simply assigned to a student in the family by a teacher in the 1860s, and the reason or origin of the name is unknown. Some of the Linnells in Sweden obtained the name as an adapted reference to the place name such as Linneryd.

There is no evidence of a relationship other than name between the English and the Swedish Linnell families, and it is also likely that many of the Swedish Linnells are unrelated to each other. Thus, the only connection between the English descended and the Swedish Linnells is the common use of a lovely sounding name.