HEWISON - THE NAME

Part of the clan "MacDonald" – centered in outer isles in Hebrides. Name survives as Hewison. "Hewison" family crest found in Papa and Westray is similar if not identical to that of Howieson, Hughison, Hueson.    Heart on blue background helmet on top of shield with three flowers arising on top.

Hewison – witness to transfer of estates( feudal privilege to Balfours), living in Edinburgh at turn of 15-16^th century.

Howieson – of Parish of "Wa" ("Wall" – later "Pier of Waal" – "Pierowall") were part of assizes which tried Janet Drever and Katherine Biglund for witchcraft. Differences in name likely arise out of different pronunciation and general illiteracy. Clerks spelling greatly transformed during 15^th and 16^th and even 17^th centuries. Even 18^th & 19^th centuries show some changes. As an example, old Parochial Church records show the spelling of Hewison, Hughison, and Hughson for the same family

Commissariat records show only "Howiesons" in Westray as of 16^th century.

Family Tree

The earliest known date on the Hewison family tree flows around the traditions of the Armada. Especially an article in the Orkney Herald by Walter Traill Dennison in 1889 – mentions a certain Gilbert Hewison of Westray who escaped Earl Patrick Stewart who was executed in 1614.

In the files of the Scottish Government Records Office is mention of the christening of a Gilbart Hewison in Canongate Edinburgh on 3 May 1567, whose father is Thomas Hewison. It is possible that the Gilbert mentioned earlier is the son of the Thomas mentioned in the next paragraph.

The next mention is in the court registry mentioning a Thomas Howiesone of "Wa" (Pierowall) in June 1614. This Hewison was a member of an assyse that tried Jonet Drever and Katherene Bigland as witches. In the same entry is mention of a fellow assyse man Oliver Howiesone.

The next mention is in a family tree found at Meadow Cottage in and amongst the papers of Timothy Harcus Hewison and copied by John Stewart Hewison. It indicated that a Robert Hewison married a Jean Rendall. Among their children was a William Hewison who was married circa 1769 – making Robert’s age close to 70 at that time. Nothing is know about said Robert Hewison, although he would be three generations removed from Gilbert.

William Hewison was married to Ann Balfour Dec 29, 1769. The Balfours, of course, were the leading citizens of Westray, having descended from Sir Gilbert Balfour and Margaret Bothwell, sister of Bishop Adam Bothwell of Orkney and also James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, Duke of Orkney and Husband of Mary Queen of Scots. Most of Westray was given as a dowry to Balfour. Noltland Castle was occupied by Sir Gilbert, but later Trenaby became the family seat, although in recent times the family built a castle in Shapinsay. The Hewison-Balfour family bible was taken possession of by Robert Hewison, eldest son who moved to England or Scotland and was last seen in 1862 in Morton by Alexander Hewison, eldest surviving son of the said Robert and grandson of William and Ann Balfour Hewison.

The second son, born 25 August 1772, was a John Hewison who was known literally as "Jock o’ the storehoose" – a clear reference to his occupation as a merchant. His business was located not far from the present (1979) Hewison’s shop, although it is now in ruins. It is unclear as to how much was passed down from his ancestors but there is no doubt the Hewisons were affluent enough to be marrying into the most influential Westray families. John married Margaret Smith, probably from the Smith’s of Buck of Waal.

A younger brother of John was Thomas who remains a mystery as to his descendants or his fate.

William Hewison, know as William of Meadowbank & Quoys, like his father was a merchant. It appears he started out from the farm of Newbigging close to his shop – then Quoys, a large Westray farm, added Meadowbank and finally "Breckowall". He underwrote the beginning of his eldest son when John (the son) was barely over twenty, into the fish trade which would make him well known in Orkney & abroad. A family bible details the births of each of William’s children.

This article was compiled by my brother Chris and transcribed by me for use on my web site. I have no problem if anyone wants to link to it or use it on their own website as long as they give credit and say where they got it from.

"STORMY SEAS UNKNOWN TO US" or "THIS DAY OF OUR GREAT PERIL"

Excerpted from "Full Fathom Five: Wrecks of the Spanish Armada", by Colin Martin and "The Voyage of the Armada: the Spanish Story", by David Howarth. (Dates are Gregorian which is ten days earlier than our Julian Calendar).

El Gran Grifon was a 650 ton and 38 gun urca from the Hanseatic League city of Rostock on the Baltic coast and derived its name from the port’s heraldic emblem of a golden griffin. El Gran Grifon should not be confused for a lesser ship in the armada known as simply the Grifon. Baltic urcas were sturdily built for cargo rather than speed or maneuverability and had as their main disadvantage the inability to sail close to the wind. El Gran Griffon played a considerable part in supplying the Armada beginning as early as June, 1586 where it carried products secretly via the long ‘north-about’ route around Scotland. Rostock allied with Spain as did most of the largely Catholic Hanseatic League due to religious and economic isolation since the Reformation. In the final muster at Lisbon on May 28, 1588 the Eighth Squadron was composed of twenty-three such Baltic urcas with a total tonnage of more than 10,000 tons (largest command in the fleet) and El Gran Griffon was the flagship of these supply and troop transports under the command of Castilian Captain-General Juan Gomez de Medina, Governor of the port of Cadiz (not to be confused with the overall armada commander, the Duke of Medina Sidonia). He had forty-three mariners on board and 243 soldiers belonging to the tercio of Nicolas de Isla and three of their company officers Patricio de Antolinez, Pedor Hurtado de Corcuera, and Esteban de Legorreta. There was also one aventurero aboard named Vasco de Lago. Spain’s great poet and playwright Lopez de la Vega who sailed with the Armada wrote:

"Famous floating army of many standards
Defenders all of the red-crossed crusade
Masts of the Faith, from which there streams
A fine white pennon at each yard’s end"

Travelling from Lisbon the Armada was dispersed by storms and El Gran Grifon and the Eighth Squadron weren’t able to shelter at Corunna with the main fleet and so proceeded through the storm to the next rendezvous point. They did not straggle back to the main fleet at Corunna until July 6 ‘smelling of England’ as Juan Martinez de Recalde put it. They had cruised of the Scillies for a fortnight in late June, where they had taken a couple of prizes, and would have taken others had not an accidental fire broken out on board one of the hulks during the action. When the Armada finally shook itself into a crescent battle formation of Land’s End, ready for its advance up Channel, the urcas were shepherded into the security of the hollow for as Medina’s General Instructions stated ‘ that great care and vigilance is to be exercised to keep the squadron of hulks always in the midst of the fleet...’

As it turns out the only urca to engage the enemy against orders in a week-long series of battles was the El Gran Grifon. It is said Medina was insulted by a supply ship posting and throughout the campaign he sought out skirmishes. On August 2^nd off Portland, according to a witness aboard a Portuguese galleon, ‘Juan Martinez de Recalde came entering in from the south-east, and with him and Juan Gomez de Medina and other ships we came so nigh (to the enemy) that with one piece of cast iron we shot two bullets into the Vice-Admiral of the English (Sir John Hawkins), and there was great shot of ordnance....’ When dawn had broke August 3^rd off the Isle of Wight the El Gran Grifon could again be seen straggling from her station and towards the fleet'’ exposed right wing. The Royal English Navy crowded on sail to cut her off and Recalde in the San Juan de Portugal came to her defence as did some Biscayans. The English under the lead of Francis Drake’s Revenge got there first and with terrifying ease glided abeam the wallowing Grifon, gave her a devastating broadside at close range, neatly came about and gave her another, then crossed her stern and raked her at half musket shot at about fifty yards. The El Gran Grifon sustained 70 shots and about that many killed or wounded as well. Beset on all sides with Drake’s Revenge outgunning here by three times. The English did not board as 200 angry and trained soldiers aboard the El Gran Grifon wanted nothing less than to come to pike’s length. Recalde’s column came into action only a few minutes later but the El Gran Grifon was disabled and caught in the middle of an engagement that occupied the whole right rear of the Armada. She was towed out by galleasses to the security of the main fleet for emergency repairs and despite her damage and casualties (highest in the Armada) fought in the rearguard action off Gravelines and kept up to the Armada during the first leg of the ‘north-about’ voyage when the winds were favourable.

The English followed for four days until reaching 55 degrees latitude (parallel with Newcastle) where they left two fast pinnaces to shadow and report on the Armada while they turned for port at the Firth of Forth for water and provisions. At about August 20^th the fleet took up a westerly course to round the north of Scotland and passed between North Ronaldsay and Fair Isle, where Scottish fishermen reported a ‘very great fleet of monstrous ships, being about 100 in number’. By this time El Gran Grifon, Barca de Amburg, Castillo Negro and La Trinidad Valencara had not been seen and were struggling south-west against headwinds for the next twelve days. They had already put everyone on starvation rations of half a pound of biscuit, a pint of water and a half litre of wine a day and to save water jettisoned the artillery’s horses and mules. On September 1, Barca de Amburg’s seams and pumps had caused her to founder and after firing a gun in distress her company of 250 was transferred to the Grifon and Valecera just before she sank. On September 4^th, off the north-west coast of Ireland, Castillo Negro vanished in the night and was never heard from again, while La Trinindad Valencera slipped away and was later wrecked September 18^th in Kinnagoe Bay, Donegal where the survivors were later slaughtered at Dun an Oir by the forces of Lord Deputy, Grey of Wilton (with Walther Raleigh in attendance) leaving the El Gran Grifon damaged, cramped and alone in stormy seas unknown.

The Grifon beat south-west into the Atlantic until the night of September 7 when a great storm caused her seams to open up as much as a hand’s breadth apart and forced her to float with the wind and sea astern. A diarist, either Gomez de Medina himself or the priest Seignour Serrano, records they ran northwards reaching St. Kilda at about 37.5 degrees latitude on September 10. The wind turned north-east allowing them to turn back ‘towards our dear Spain’ until September 13 when at latitude with Galway Bay, well down the coast of Ireland it backed once more into the south-west quarter:

‘We turned back and sailed for three days more to the latitude we had been in before. But when we got there, we were fit only to die, for the wind was so strong and the sea so wild that the waves mounted to the skies, knocking the ship about so that the men were all exhausted, and yet unable to keep down the water that leaked through our gaping seams. If we had not had the wind astern we could not have kept afloat at all. But by God’s mercy during the next two days the weather moderated, and we were able to patch up some of the leaks with ox-hides and planks. And so we ran until 23^rd September, when the wind rose against us, and we decided to turn back again and try to reach Scotland. On the 25^th we sighted some islands which the pilots said were Scottish (Outer Hebrides). And so we sailed till the 26^th to the north-east in search of land. On that day we sighted some other islands which we tried to avoid so as not to be lost (N. Orkneys). The weather then got so strong that our poor repairs were all undone, and we had to keep both pumps always going to keep the water down. So we decided to sail for the first Scottish land even if we had to run the hulk ashore. Late in the afternoon of the 26^th we were troubled to see an island to windward of us (Westray, or Papa Westray), for it was getting darker and we feared to be among islands in the dark. We had hoped we were free of them. During the night we gave ourselves up for lost, for the seas ran mountains high, and the rain fell in torrents. At two in the morning we saw an island right ahead of us (North part of Sanday) which as may be supposed, filled us with consternation after all the tribulation we had passed through.’

On the pitch dark night of October 26^th they were lost in the Orkney Islands and in danger of running aground when the aurora borealis revealed breakers on rocky shores all around:

‘But God in His mercy at that moment sent us a sudden gleam of light through the dark night, and so enabled us to avoid the danger. The blackness fell as dense as before. Two hours afterwards another island loomed up before us, so close that it seemed impossible to weather it. But God came to our aid as usual, and sent a move vivid gleam than before. It was so bright that I asked whether it was daylight. This was the Isle of Cream (North Ronaldsay), where we decided to bring up if we could not reach Scotland, though we did not recognize it until later as we had run further than we thought. At dawn, two hours later, we discovered it, and in fear of the heavy sea we tried to get near the island again, but after trying for four hours we found it impossible. The sea kept giving us such dreadful blows, that truly our one thought was that our lives were ended, and each one of us reconciled himself to God as well as he could, and prepared for the long journey that seemed inevitable. As to force the hulk any more would only have ended it and our lives the sooner, we determined to cease our efforts. The poor soldiers, too, lost all spirit to work at the pumps. The two companies – 230 men in all, and 40 we had taken from the other ship, had pumped incessantly and worked with buckets, but the water still increased, till there were thirteen spans over the carlings (as they call them) and all efforts to reduce it an inch. So we gave way to despair, and each one of us called upon the Virgin Mary to be our intermediary in so bitter a pass; and we looked towards the land with full eyes and hearts, as the reader may imagine. And God send that he may be able to imagine the smallest part of what it was like, for after all there is a great difference between those who suffer and those who look upon suffering from afar off. At last – when we thought all hope gone, except through God and His holy Mother, who never fails those who call upon him – at two o’clock in the afternoon we sighted an island ahead of us. This was Fair Isle, where we arrived at sunset, much consoled, though we saw we should still have to suffer. But anything was better than drinking salt water. We anchored in a sheltered spot we found, this day of our great peril, 27^th September, 1588.’

Set in the midst of the unpredictable tidal cross-currents of the Atlantic-North Sea and the 600 foot cliffs of the three mile long Fair Isle, El Gran Grifon found its way through the Atlantic rollers of a gale around Point Saider to Swartz Geo Inlet, the only sheltered haven to be found on the island, where it dropped anchor at dusk. On the morning of September 28 an attempt to run the Grifon aground on the gently sloping pebble beach failed and the ship became wedged in the ‘Kist O’ Stoodle’ fissure of the narrow cave ending geo of Stromshellier. Stromshellier is derived from the Norse ‘Cave of the Tide-Race’ between Sunburgh Roost, Sunburgh Head and Fair Isle and a worse place could not be imagined with its cliffs overhanging as high as 150 feet, jagged reefs on either side, a spine like outcrop running down the middle and a sea bed of shallow rock and sheer gullies. Island tradition recounts how all 300 Spaniards survived the wreck by climbing up the masts and over the yards which leaned against the 70 foot cliff ‘Cup O’ Skairharis’.

In 1593 the notorious Earl Patrick of Orkney teamed with William Irvine of Sebay to salvage the wreck, but it was not until 1728 that two bronze guns were recovered and not until 1970 that the wreck’s other remains were found by divers. Local Orkney belief had it that the ship’s hull turned to stone and was covered with seaweed. Fair Isle is owned by the National Trust for Scotland and administered by Lerwick County Museum, Shetland County Council, William.

A Scotsman wrote ‘they saved their treasure and are come hither unspoiled’ and another tradition relates that when the Spaniards were seen walking over the hummock to the crofts with their gleaming breastplates and morion, the locals thought that they were the Angels of Heavenly Host and that the Day of Judgement had arrived. The islanders were of Norse origin who had lived under Scottish rule for only a century and resented it. The diarist continues:

‘We found the island peopled by seventeen households in huts, more like hovels than anything else. They are savage people, whose usual food is fish, without bread, except for a few barley-meal bannocks cooked over the embers of a fuel they use, which they make or extract from the earth and call turf. They have some cattle, quite enough for themselves, for they rarely eat meat. They depend mainly upon the milk and butter from their cows using their sheeps’ wool principally for clothing. They are very dirty people, neither Christians nor altogether heretics. It is true they confess that the doctrine that once a year is preached to them by people sent from another island, nine leagues off, is not good, but they say they dare not contradict it, which is a pity. Three hundred men of us landed on the island, but could save none of our provisions. From that day, 28^th September, till 14^th November, we lost fifty of our men – most of them dying of hunger – amongst others the master and mate of the hulk. We had decided to send a messenger to the governor (Shetland) to beg some boats to carry us to Scotland to seek rescue, but the weather was so heavy that we could not send until 27^th October, when the weather was fine, and they went. They have not yet returned in consequence of the violence of the sea.’

Robert Meteith, an Orkney man writing in 1633 put it this way:

‘...the Spaniards at first eating up all they could find, not only cattle, sheep, fishes and fowls, but also horses... the Islanders in the night carried off their beasts and victual to places in the isle where the Spaniards might not find them: the officers also strictly commanded the soldiers to take nothing but what they paid for, which they did very largely, so that the people were not great losers by them, having got a great many Spanish reals for the victuals they gave them. But now the people fearing a famine among themselves kept up their victuals from the Spaniards; thus all supply from the isle failing them they took up their own bread (which they had preserved) which being dipped in fish oil they did eat, which also being spent it came to pass that many of them died of hunger, and the rest were so weakened, that one or two of the islanders finding a few of them together could easily throw them over the cliffs, by which many of them died.’

Another tradition told to Robert Stuart Bruce of Symbister by Walter Traill Dennison of Orkney (who has a rapier given to the head of the family by an officer of the wreck) tells of a number of Spaniards being killed by the Islanders, who cased the heavy flagstone roof of their large turf hut to fall in on them. Yet another story states that the Spaniards were ‘pitten over da bauks’, that is they were lured to an open-air feast at the foot of the deep geo where they were cut off and drowned by the incoming tide. Facts do not bear out the tales of murder and those who died of hunger are buried in a recently exposed mass grave now called ‘the Spainnarts Graves’. Moreover the two sides both acted remarkably humane as the heavily armed Spaniards did not take the island by force and the islanders shared whatever they had in way of shelter, stores, boats, etc. To this day a Griffon can be found in the woolen designs of the island.

In mid November most of the Spaniards were rescued with Gomez de Medina as ‘notice came to Andrew Umphrey of Burra (in Shetland) who, having a ship of his own, instantly went to the Isle and brought them to Shetland’ where they were ‘suffered to come to land, and lie all together, to the number of thirteen score, for the most part young beardless men, sillie, trauchled and hungered, to which kail, porridge and fish were given...’ Among those rescued were Captains de Antolinez, de Legoretta, de Lufera, Mauritio (Maurice Desmond, relation of Sir John Desmond who led Kerry revolt against the English in Ireland), Thomas Desmond, and Irishman named Robert Aspolle (probably and aventureros) and a priest called Seignour Serrano. There is also a Shetland tradition that relates of another unknown armada ship being wrecked there which is strengthened by a marginal note of Lord Burghley’s on September 29 which speaks of two ships being lost in Shetland. Its men as the story goes were imprisoned for safety’s sake on a very small islet called Kirkholm, not far from Scalloway, the ancient capital. El Gran Grifon’s crew built themselves huts on the mainland of Shetland which have since disappeared under the plough, but those on Kirkholm still stand as a long row of very small huts with one larger one in the middle of them with a rounded end like the apse of a church which is either a Spanish relic or even older from the monks of St. Columba. They have not been excavated yet. Of the 30,000 men and 130 ships of the Armada only a handful of ships and a few thousand men survived to ever see Spain again.

From the book Genealogy of the Pelton Family in America by J.M. Pelton 

PELTON - THE NAME

PILDEN, PILTON, PELDON, PELTON, PALTON, PULTON, POLTON, POULTON, AS THE NAME OF A PARISH, MANOR OR PLACE.

The earliest appearance of Pelton or Polton, as the name of a place, found by the writer, is in "Camden's Britannia," vol. I, p. 19, where it is stated that "about 905, Edward the Elder settled a Bishop's See in Bodman (Cornwall), and granted the Bishop of Kirton three villages in those parts, Polton, Caeling, and Landwitham 6 c. * * Polton is probably Paulton in South Breange, afterwards Pawton." Pelton, Durham, England, Camden, in his Britannia, gives as a village in the Parish of Chester le Street, situated on the Wear, seven miles north of the city of Durham. Hutchinson's History of Durham, 1787, vol. 2, 401, says: " The village of Pelton is in sight from Lumley Castle." Surtee's Durham, " Pelton a village on high ground a mile to the northwest of Chester le Street. In 1320 Hugh Burdon held half the vill of Pelton of John Haddam, the Superior Lord of the fee, by homage and sixth part of a knight's service. Another Hugh died seized of the same estate in 1350, and in 1395 Agnes, his daughter and heir, wife of the first Hugh del Redhough, and then of Thomas de Beke Chivaler, died seized of the whole manor of Pelton, held of the Bishop (ut supponitor) by knight's service and suit of court. Thomas del Redhough (Redhugh), son and heir of Agnes, alienated his lands in Pelton to Robert de Whelpington, who was a trustee for the family of Neville, or conveyed to them. In 1426 the manor of Pelton, among the possessions of Ralph, the first Earl of Westmoreland, was included in the forfeiture of the last Earl in 1569. The place is celebrated for its collieries, out of which the Allans of Grange, living in 'The Flatts,' had made a fortune." PELDON, a parish and manor in Essex, England, the history of which reaches back to the time of Edward the Confessor (1004 to 1066), of which more further on. "PILTON, formerly a distinct estate, held in 1286 by William de Montchensi of Henry de Cramaville, belonged in 1835 to the Bradwell manor" (Wright's Essex, vol. 2, 695, and Morant's Essex, vol. I, 375). Also a parish in County Devon, in Northampton, and in Somserset. POLTON, a parish in Kent, Eng. In the " Visitation of Somersetshire," in 1623, by R. Mundy, page 124, we have Palton of Palton. * Pulton, Manor, Desborough, Northamptonshire (Bridges' Hist. of Northamptonshire). See further on.

*As in 1320 Hugh Burdon (see above) held half the vill of Pelton, Durham, and in the reign of Henry IV (1399-1413) the Manor of Desborough passed from the Burdon family to John Pulton, as paramount lord, and became "Pulton Manor," remaining in the family down to the time of Henry VIII (see p. II), and as John Neville, in 1282, bought a part of the Peldon manor in Essex, and the family of Neville, soon after 1400, came into possession of a part of the manor of Pelton, in Durham, it would be interesting to know whether the Peltons, Poltons or Pultons, the Burdons, and the Nevilles were relatives, and also how long the name of Pelton has existed in Durham. Information as to this last question could probably be obtained by examining the " Boldon Book," made in 1183, which is an examination of Durham, similar to that made of the larger part of England in 1083, and contained in "The Domesday Book." A copy of " The Boldon Book" is in the Bishop's office in Durham.

PELDON, PELDEN, PELTON, PILTON, POLTON, POULTON, PULTON, AND PERHAPS PALTON AS A FAMILY SURNAME

Lower, in his Dictionary of English Surnames, derives Pelton as a surname from the Parish of Peldon in Essex, England. Burke, in his General Armory, says : " The Peltons and Poltons had their seats in Essex and Northamptonshire. He gives their coats of arms, which differ but little (see p.14). In Morant's History of Essex, vol. I, 41 7-19, we find Peldon parish, manor and hall, situated in Winstree Hundred; and that, in the reign of Edward the Confessor, the lands in the parish where this manor is situated were held by Turchill, a freeman, and another freeman, name not given. Peldon Hall, the mansion house, stands on the north side of the church. The estate was granted by William the Conqueror, to William the Deacon, about 1086, toward the rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral, hence held by the Bishops of London. It was held from them by a family that, from the manor, took the name of Peltindone. In 1282 Walter de Peltindone enfeofed John de Nevill and Margery, his wife, with part of this manor - three hundred and sixty acres and a windmill, etc." In 1332 it was called Peltyndon, and in 1358 Peltyngdon. The manor has been known as Peltendune, Peltyngdon, Pellingdon, Peltindone, Peltyndon, Peltindone, Poltendon and Peldon, and the family name has varied accordingly. " Dun signifies a hill; a part of the parish is on a hill."

PELTON, POLTON AND PULTON HOMES IN ENGLAND 1066-1631

In Essex.

On October 14, 1066, William the Conqueror fought and won the battle of Hastings. On page 10 we have shown that in 1086 he granted the estate, afterward known as Peldon Manor, to William the Deacon, and that this estate came into the possession of the ancestor of the Pelton family, whose descendants held it down to at least 1358. We also find (Morant's Essex, I, I 13) that Peter Poulton held real estate in Essex in I 568.

In Northamptonshire.

" The Pultons" inhabited Desborough, Northamp. tonshire, for 370 years. John Pulton, first lord of Desborough, seated at Cransley about 1367, married Jane de Desborough (see marble monument in Desborough church). In the reign of Henry IV (1399 to 1413) the manor of Desborough, Northamptonshire, passed from the Burdon family to John Pulton as paramount lord. In the second year of Edward IV (1463) this manor was in the hands of Thomas Pulton. In the second year of Edward VI (1549) Giles Pulton was seized of a manor called Pulton's Manor. His wife, Catherine, daughter of Thomas Lovett, Esq., of Atwell in Nottinghamshire, died in the 15th year of Henry VIII (I 524)." (Bridges' History of Northamptonshire.)

In Wiltshire.

In 1435, the west tower of the church of St. Andrews at Wansborough, Wiltshire, was built by Thomas Polton and Edith, his wife, as set forth by a brass plate on one of its walls ; another brass plate, with an inscription, shows the place of their burial within the church. (See Rickman's Architecture in England, Ed. 6, 1862, p. 405.)

Somersetshire and Bucks.

 In the " Visitation of Somersetshire," 1623, R. Mundy, p. I 24, we have Palton of Palton. From " Burke's Commoners." Alban Butler, Esq., of Aston le Walls, married Anne, daughter of Ferdinand Pulton, Esq., of Bourton, Bucks, who died in 1631.

*Burke spells the name Polton and Pelton.

THE PELTONS OF ENGLAND OF THE PRESENT DAY, THEIR NUMBER, TRADITIONS AND LOCATION

It is said that the number of persons of any surname found in the directory of London, is a fair guide to the number of that name to be found in the kingdom of Great Britain. An examination of the London Directory, and a personal correspondence with representatives of the name in England, seem to indicate that but few Peltons are now living there, and that they trace their line back, with certainty, for four or five generations only, to Charles Pelton, who, tradition says, came from France, a Huguenot, during one of the persecutions of that people. Tradition also gives it as probable that the ancestor of Charles fled from Pelton Manor, in Durham, to France, at the end of one of the English civil wars. The writer has found nothing to confirm this latter tradition, but thinks it more probable that some of the Peltons of Essex or Northampton went over to France in the time of the Angevine kings, while England was a continental power and there made their homes." However true this return may have been, the writer feels sure that from 1086 down, there has not been a generation in which there have not been families in England bearing the name of Pelton, or some of its variants, ready to fight for the British flag. Many of the Huguenot immigrants settled in the Thames valley in England. The reputed immigrant, Charles Pelton, settled in Brentford near Richmond, where he was clerk of the chapel for years until he there died, leaving sons, Charles, Robert, John, Joshua and Richard, besides daughters, whose descendants of the fourth and fifth generations are now in London, Croydon, Depthford, Tunbridge Wells and North Shields, England; in Montreal and Ottawa, Canada; in France and in Australia. Quite a colony was in London twenty or thirty years ago. One of the London Peltons, Samuel, was made a citizen of that city "for bravery in the face of the enemy," in one of the Napoleonic wars.† It is not strange that but few are left in England, considering their tendency to migrate to new lands, and to serve their country in times of war. These Peltons have good mechanical, mathematical, mercantile and musical talents, and are so much like our Peltons of America in their mental and physical characteristics, the writer is compelled to believe that we are descended from the Peltons of Essex or Northampton, they, doubtless, having been closely related, as shown by the similarity of their coats of arms, as given below.

Burke in his " General Armory," and in his " Commoners," says that the Peltons or Poltons had their seats in Essex and Northampton. He gives as coats of arms :

1. " Pelton (Co. Northampton), Or, on a fesse betw. three mullets sa., as many bezants."
2. " Poulton, Pulton, or Polton, Desborough, (Northampton). Ar. fess betw. three mullets sa"
3. " Another. On the fess three bezants."
4. " Pelton or Polton. Ar.three mullets sa, each charged with a bezant." Crest - A hand holding a swan's head and neck erased, all ppr.
5. " Pelton or Polton (Essex). An inescutcheon charged with a bend, within an orle of escallops."
6. " Pelton. Or. six starlings betw. three mullets sa. each charged with a bezant."
7. " Palton (Co. Devon). Ar. Six roses Gu. seeded or, three, two and one."

* The following extract from a foot-note in Macaulay's England, shows that it was common for Englishmen, in the times of religious persecution, to leave their country for a long time. In the controversies of 1686, between Protestants and Catholics, one of the ablest of the Roman Catholic divines was Andrew Pulton, whose spelling, after an absence of eighteen years, was so bad, that in a contemporary satire, entitled The Advance, is the following couplet : "Send Pulton to be lashed in Busby's school, That he in print no longer play the fool."

† Two of Samuel's brothers were serving in the British navy at the time he was in the army.

Peltons in Ireland and Germany.

Thomas Pelton, from Galway, Ireland, the writer saw in New York about 1860. He served in the Union armies in the great rebellion, returned safe, and is now a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. Another Pelton, a few years ago, kept a hotel in Iowa He was apparently a full-blooded German. Both of these were doubtless of English descent. Two merchants in Denver, Col., from the continent of Europe, of Hebrew descent, and bearing the name of Pelton, derived their name thus from Palti, one of the chiefs of the tribe of Benjamin (Numbers, ch. 13 : 9). The name in the Jewish vernacular became corrupted in pronunciation and changed to Pelti, which, by the addition of an n, became Peltin, the name assumed by their ancestor as a patronymic. In this country they dropped the i and inserted an o, hence their name Pelton.

A Few Scraps of History.

1. VIRGINIA.- This name was first applied to what is now Carolina, afterward to territory between Lat. 34°to 45°N. Still later the lands from 34° to 38° N. were granted to The London Company, those from 41° to 46° given to other parties and called New England ; while those from 38° to 41° N. were left open. On May 13, 1607, 105 colonists sent by The London Company, founded Jarnestown, or City, as then called, the first permanent English colony in America
2. IN NEW ENGLAND, the first settlement was made on the Elizabeth Islands, at the mouth of Buzzard's Bay, in 1602, by Bartholomew Gosland and thirty-two others.
3. PLYMOUTH.- NOV. 9, 1620, the Mayflower, with IOO English puritans, former exiles in Holland, reached Cape Cod, Massachusetts, at a point now Provincetown. Later they sailed across the bay, formed a government and elected John Carver, governor, and landed at Plymouth Dec. 15, 0. S., 25, N. S. In 1622, later, colonists settled Weymouth, farther north.
4. SALEM was settled in 1628 by an expedition, led by John Endicott, who acted as governor. In 1629 a reinforcement of 300 men, 80 women and 26 children arrived, with supplies of food, arms, tools, cattle and goats. From this reinforcement a party was sent by Endicott to take possession of the mouth of Charles river, hence the settlement of Charlestown, July 4, I 629. (Frothingham's History, 1848.) In this year of 1629 a royal charter was granted to the colony of Massachusetts Bay, and the London Company deciding to transfer the govern- ment of the colony to America, elected directors from the intending emigrants, with John Winthrop as governor.
5. DORCHESTER, now a part of Boston, was settled by a body of substantial English puritans and non- conformists, urged thereto by Rev. John White of Dorchester, England. They were a body of noble men, superior to the average of emigrants, and came provided with implements and money to prosecute the various trades, and with their ministers ready to form a church in their new home. They sailed from Plymouth on March 30, 1630, N. S., a short time be- fore Gov. Winthrop and his people, intending to go to Charles River, but made land at Nantasket, a short distance south of the present Dorchester, where their good ship Henry and John, of 400 tons burthen, landed her 140 passengers, June I I, 1630, N. S. Moving northward a short distance they arrived at Mattapan, as the Indians called it, and finding pas- ture for their cattle there, stopped June I 7, and called their settlement New Dorchester. Here they soon built a church and established a school ; built the first water-mill in America, in 1633, and about the same time established the New England cod fishery.
6. BOSTON.-Gov. Winthrop, with his company of about 900 persons, sailed from Yarmouth, England, April 7, 1630, and arrived at Salem, June 12, 1630 ; John Endicott resigning to Winthrop the governorship. That year, 1630, gave the colony an increase of about 1,000 immigrants in seventeen vessels. Many of Gov. Winthrop's people at Salem became dissatisfied, and he removed with them to Charlestown. They there found a scarcity of good fresh  water. The peninsula opposite, then called by the Indians Shawmut, and by the whites Tri Mountain, had a solitary inhabitant, Rev. William Blackstone, who had lived there several years alone, and had planted an orchard, the first in New England. He heard of their difficulties, visited them, told them he had good land with many springs of good fresh water, and invited them to join him. They accepted his invitation and were pleased. On Sept. 7, 1630, at a meeting in Charlestown, it was voted to remove the governor's house to the peninsula, and that the new town should be called Boston. According to the resolution the governor's house was removed and eventually nearly all the people crossed Charles river to Boston, and there remained.

 Peltons Who Came to America ; When, and Where They Settled.

The first immigrant of the name known was George Pelton, who sailed in the Furtherance to Virginia in 1622, and settled at Burrows Hill, James City. (See Hotten's Original Lists of Emigrants to America, p. 231. Chatto & Windus, London. Bouton, N. Y.) The writer has learned nothing more of him. The second was John Pelton, of whom James Savage's General Dictionary of three Generations of The First Settlers of New England says, " Pelton, John, Boston, very early, had an estate, described in The Book of Possessions, removed to Dorchester ; his eldest son, John, was baptized March 2, 1645. In his will of Jan. 3, 1681, proved March 10, follow- ing, he names widow, Susanna, sons John, Samuel and Robert the youngest, besides daughter, Mary. To Samuel was given administration of Robert, lost at sea, July, 1683." All Peltons in America, except- ing two or three families in Canada, are descended from this John Pelton and from his second son Sam- uel, as will appear from the record.

Traditions and Facts

Traditions many and various have been found as to the number who came, the date of their coming and their places of settlement. As to dates given, or approximations thereof, all but one have been wrong, in being too recent. Mrs. Simmons, who died in 1862 in New Hampshire, said her father, John4 Pelton (second of Saybrook, Conn.), was of the fourth generation of Peltons in America. She was right. Of course we have the common tradition that three brothers came, some say they came from Wales and some from Ireland, that two went by the name of Felton and one by that of Pelton; also that there were Peltons in Virginia whose name was changed into Peyton. Against all these we put these histor- ical facts ; that the Peltons came from England, even if some of them sailed from a Welsh port. That the name of John Pelton of Boston and of his descend- ants was always Pelton. Also that Nathaniel Yelton or Felton, in 1633, then about 17 years old, came to Salem, Mass., that he returned to England in 1634, and came back in 1635 with his brother Benjamin, about 22 years of age, and their mother, Eleanor. Benjamin died about 1689, at about 76 ; and Nathan- iel, July 30, I 705, ae. 90 years. Public documents and the history of those times show that these men were called both Felton and Pelton. (See New England Genealogical and Anti- quarian Reg'r, Vol. for 1849, "ffelton, Benjamin, made a 'freeman' by Mass. General Court at Bos. ton, May 22, 1639.") In Vol. far 1852, " Early Settlers of Essex and Old Norfolk, Mass.," Felton (See Pelton), Nathaniel, etc., and in Vol. for 1853, " Pelton or Felton," Benjamin, etc., " Early Settlers of Essex and Norfolk, Mass." We now return to John Pelton of Boston. His name is in " The Book of Possessions." This is the first land record of Boston, and was made by order of the General Court in or about 1634. The descrip- tion of his property is as follows, viz. : "John Pelton, House and house lot ; Owen Rowe, West ; Street, North ; Cove, South ; the marsh, East." Rowe, Mr. Owen; House and garden, Street North ; Cove South ; the Marsh East, shows that Mr. Pelton's land, before 1634, (probably in 1631 or '2,) joined on the west that of Owen Rowe, from whom Rowe's wharf was named. The rec- ords of the early division of lands in Boston were lost long since. Drake in his "Old Landmarks of Boston," says that, " In the limits of the peninsula the rule was two acres to plant on, and for every able youth one acre within the neck and Noddle's Island (now East Boston)." Judging from the rec- ord above, and from the record of the baptism of his oldest child John, March 2, 1645, the writer believes he came over when young and received land as an "able youth." And from records given further on he also believes that he came with or had some older married female relative, or relatives who lived in Boston or Dorchester, during at least a part of the time of his residence at the latter place, His reasons for this belief are: I. That John Smith, quartermas- ter, so called, married for his third wife " Widow Katherine Pelton." This must have occurred before Dec. 30, I 676, as his will bearing that date, and proven July 25, 1678, mentions "his wife, Katherine, and sons John and other children." Now, as may be seen in the body of the work, John1 Pelton and all his sons were living at that time, and the further fact that Samuel Pelton, son of John1, married *Mary Smith, daughter of John Smith, quartermaster, this "Widow Pelton" could not have been the widow of John1 Pelton, as her name was Susanna 2. As the Widow Katherine Pelton (Smith) died in Boston, July I 7, I 710, aged go, she must have been born in 1620, and 14 years old in I 634, hence could not have been the mother of John1 Pelton. In Boston the land of John Pelton adjoined that of Mr. Owen Rowe. In Dorchester, to which he removed about 1635, the Peltons were neighbors of the Glovers, one of the best families there, while Nathaniel Glover, oldest son of John Glover, and Samuel Pelton each married a daughter of John Smith, quartermaster, and each named Mary." The " Glover Memorial " shows that on Dec. 25, I 700, Nathaniel Glover, Sen., and his wife, Hannah, deeded to Nathaniel Glover, Jr., in Dorchester, sev- eral parcels of land, among them his house lot of 15 acres, "being butted and bounded on the easterly end upon the sea or salt water, on the northerly side by land of Widow Pelton and Joseph Hall ; on the westerly end upon the highway leading to Tileston's

*That Mr. John Smith had two daughters Mary, living at the same time, had escaped the sharp eyes of Mr. Ebenezer Clapp, historian, of Dor- chester, until informed of the fact by the writer.