The Torrels were seated at Torrel’s-Preston, in Somersetshire, from the time of Henry II. “William Torel was lord of the whole town of Isle-Brewers in this county, and was then fined in the sum of one mark for neglecting to make hue and cry after the death of Alured de Aneville.” - Collinson's Somerset. There are “monuments and other memorials”of the Torrells in the church of Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire. - Lysons. Thomas Torel was High Sheriff of the county 49 Edward III. William Torel, in 1260, had been a benefactor to Burton Lager Chapel, Leicestershire. - Nichols. William Torel was Sheriff of Herefordshire 29, 30 Hen. III. He was probably the descendant of another William Torel, who in the reign of Hen. I., held Pencumbia of the barony of Robert D’Ewyas. - Duncumb's Herefordshire. A William Torel witnesses several of the charters to Brecknock Priory (Mon. Angl.).

The first connected notice that I could find of this ubiquitous family was in Morant’s History of Essex. In Henry II.’s reign, William Torrell held Torrell’s Hall in that county “by the Grand Serjeancy of being Napperer to the King, or having the care of the King’s Nappery, or Table-Linen, on the day of his Coronation.” They also left their name to Shellow-Torrell’s, and Torrell’s Thurrock, where they continued Lords of the manor for at least two hundred years. Amauri de Torrell was one of the great men that accompanied Cœur de Lion to the Holy Land. The last heir, Humphrey, who succeeded to the estate while still in his nurse’s arms, served as Sheriff of Essex 18 Hen. VIII., and died in 1544, leaving an only child, Anne, who afterwards married a younger son of Sir Thomas Jocelyn of Hyde Hall. These Torrells bore Gules three bulls’ heads couped Or; whence Morant derives their name from taureau.

Several other branches are mentioned in the Rotuli Hundredorum. About 1272, Alan and John Thorel were of Kent, Richard Torel of Oxfordshire, and William Thorel of the city of London.