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.