The First Pemberton?

There is a mention of a very early Pemberton on the website for The Hissem-Montague Family here: http://balder.prohosting.com/shissem/Hissem_Villiers.html

Pembertons move south into Shropshire (south of Marbury)

The Encyclopedia of heraldry: or General armory of England, Scotland, and ... by John Burke, Sir Bernard Burke lists the following interesting comment:

(Pemberton (Millichope, co. Salop; descended from a family seated at Pemberton, co. Lancaster, some of whom removed at an early period into Shropshire. The present representative is the Rev. Bobert Norgrave Pemberton, of Millichope Hall, whose great uncle, Edward Pemberton, esq. was high sheriff of Shropshire in 1754)

Pemberton's from Middleton, St. George Parish, Durham Co

The Encyclopedia of heraldry: or General armory of England, Scotland, and ... by John Burke, Sir Bernard Burke lists the following interesting comment:

Pemberton (Aislaby, co. Durham, A.D. 1595; derived from John Pemberton of Stanhope, living in 1400. The last male heir, William Pemberton, of Middleton St. George, esq. d. num. in 1801, when the representation of the family devolved on his cousin George Allen, of Blackwell Grange, esq. M.P. grandson of James Allen, of Blackwell Grange, esq. by Elizabeth his wife, dau. of William Pemberton, esq. who was great-grandson of John Pemberton, of Aislaby, esq. by Isabel Grey, his wife, granddau. of Sir Ralph Grey, of Chillingham, knt. The present representative of the Pemberton family is William Allan, of Blackwell Grange, esq.)

A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, 1848, states in regard to Middleton (St. George):

"MIDDLETON (St. George), a parish, in the union of Darlington, S. W. division of Stockton ward, S. division of the county of Durham, 6 miles (E. S. E.) from Darlington; containing 433 inhabitants. This parish, which is bounded on the south by the river Tees, comprises about 3100 acres, and includes the village of Middleton-One-Row and the hamlet of Oak-Tree; the surface is undulated, the soil clay. ..." This is about 80 miles north of Middleton, Manchester Co.

Diary of Samuel Pepys and Green Olives

Reviewing old emails about the Pemberton's gatepost sign, I saw a reference to Samuel Pepys [say peeps] a Londoner of renown who kept an extensive diary from 1660 to 1669. Today, Wikipedia says, "Although Pepys had no maritime experience, he rose by patronage, hard work and his talent for administration, to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both King Charles II and subsequently King James II." The diary is being published a bit at a time. A search today found a reference to a Pemberton that should have been spelled Pembleton - a dance instructor.

King Charles II married a girl from Portugal

And what do they grow there if it isn't olives - "While olives are green and commodities rough, this is ..."

First Pemberton DNA Sample Submitted

Today I sent the first DNA sample (mine) to Family Tree DNA. Meanwhile, my brother informs me that he submitted a sample years ago to the Sorenson DNA lab so it will be fun to see how closely we match. We are all hoping that many others will join in the DNA data base for the Pemberton surname. The Family Tree DNA project for Pemberton is here.

Will of Sarah Pemberton 1696

... And my body I commit to the Earth to be decently buryed by my late dear husband Sir Matthias Pemberton ... We presume the preposition "by" means "beside" not "through the instrumentality of".

Will of John Pemberton, 1648

Proved in London, 18 February 1651 No connection visible there.

The Pickax Dream

In my dream (see post of March 26th), the pickax was buried up to the handle collar (the handle lying horizontal on the soil), sharp end down in a recently tilled farm field. It occurs to me that the field may represent Pemberton's hough, and that John Pemberton, blacksmith, of Thornton Hough, may have come into owership of George Pemberton's hough - thus the pick is in the hough. More likely, the pick is in Thornton Hough. The signature mark on the little bit of paper attached to the top end of the pick, must be that of someone linking this John to one of my George's.

I have completed the transcription of the Will of John Pemberton, Blacksmith, of Thornton Hough, 1664, proved 1669 and John gives his wife's name as Margery and his children as John, Robert, William, and Elline. John blacksmith must have been born between 1605 and 1635.

There is a family showing up in the baptisms in St Oswald, Chester, Cheshire of interest here. George Pemberton is the father of these children: George 1640, John 1642, Hester 1643, and Elizabeth 1644. Its about 12 crow miles from Chester to Thorton Hough, which is on the Wirral. Was this son John named after the blacksmith, an uncle maybe? I have to work this a bit. Maybe the father of George the first was a John?

The only record I have found of a Sarah Middleton, who married George Pemberton I, is in Nantwich, 1661, so this George baptised in 1640 would almost have to be George Pemberton the zeroeth, and his father George Pemberton the -1th (if they are indeed in the same lineage).

Will of George Pemberton, yeoman, Wallesey, 1685

Finished transcribing today. This will is of particular interest because although it does not mention a son George, it does mention a daughter in law Elizabeth making it a tantalizing candidate for the will of our George Pemberton I whose son George married Elizabeth Brooks. However, there is a serious problem because George II and Elizabeth had children in Virginia beginning in 1718, 33 years after this will.

Meeting with Dixie Pemberton

I had the distinct pleasure of spending the afternoon with Dixie, my wonderful collaborator in this research. We finally could talk face to face after all these months of working together. It was so great!!

Finding John Pemberton blacksmith's family

Examined the will of John Pemberton blacksmith 1664: wife Margery, children John, Robert, William, and Elline. Sorted the baptismal records of the parishes (both the Cheshire Parish Register Transcription Project and the familySearch christenings data I extracted a few months ago) and tried to identify this family - could not find them. Specifically, I could not find a John with even two of the four children named. This is an interesting "not find" because it seems to say something about the completeness of the records. I think I shall try to do this same thing with the George Pemberton wills and see what happens.

Started the Pemberton Surname Research Blog

Today I started the Pemberton Surname Research blog here: http://pembertonsurname.blogspot.com/

Decisions about Research

I have been away from this for a month and got back to it today at the Genealogical Library in Salt Lake City. In reviewing my data, I see the following in regard to the three sets of George son of George:

1. The George Pemberton, baptised in Marbury, 13 Feb 1685, shows a mother Alice, not Sarah. If I sort the thousands of names I have into families, I see this George and Alice had several children (her name appears with all these) between 1685 & 1700. The oldest child is George so this cannot be my family, even if there was a prior marriage. If George had a wife before Alice, and named a son George and he was still living, they would not have named one of Alice's sons George. If Alice's George died and was replaced by a son of a second wife (who would have to be Sarah), the earliest possible birth is 1702 which would make George 16 when he had his first child in Virginia. It just doesn't work.

2. The George christened 30 Sept 1661 at St Mary's in Chester, has only one sibling, Thomas, christened 13 Feb 1662, four and a half months later.

3. The George christened 3 May 1640 at St Oswald's in Chester, has four siblings, John, Hester, Elizabeth and Anna, christened in 1642, 1643, 1644, and 1646. This George is too old to be our George II but he could be our George I. (The scrapbook says George II named his daughters Ann, Judith and Sarah.) However, there is a George Pemberton fathering a family in this same parish a generation later with two children Martha and William christened in 1666 and 1668.

4. There are 17 George baptisms/christenings in the parish records of Cheshire between the earliest in 1596 and 1751. One third of these have no father information, one forth of them have a George father. Only one other christian name occurs more than once among these George christenings: Joseph (occurs twice).

Searching Perogative Court of Cantebury (PCC) Wills

At the Salt Lake City Genealogical Library today, looking for George Pemberton wills 1383 - 1857. Looked through films 0091811 and 0091812 and found Pemberton wills for Roger, 1713? (approx), Francis 1715, Edward 1717, Edward 1717, Mary 1718, Thomas 1719, and John 1719. On film 0091810 John 1703, Carolus Middleton 1705, Thomas Pemberton 1705 (which will I pulled and read - 7 pages wife Martha, location Northampton and places east of there), and Maria 1705. Ended at that point.

Registered Pemberton Surname for a One-Name Study

I joined the Guild of One-Name Studies a couple weeks ago and today took the plunge to register Pemberton and formalise what I had already started - the compilation of all the family history and genealogical data available relating to people with the Pemberton Surname. Luckily, there is no imposed deadline as to when this has to be completed.

My motivation is two-fold: first, I enjoy this sort of work, and extracting data in bulk somehow makes more sense to me than looking for one at a time (maybe a symptom of a vocational disease I contracted years ago), and second, and more important; I have been deeply impressed as I have researched the name and particularly as I have met distant cousins in England, with the kind of people they always seem to be: down to earth, honest, independent, driven by principle more than convenience, and religious. I think it can be a wonderful blessing to thousands of Pemberton, many yet unborn, to know what kind of people they come from and to understand the feelings that course through their hearts as they deal with the vicissitudes of life.

More Research at the Chester Record Office

We have read about 20 wills, including one of John Pemberton, blacksmith, where he puts his mark and it is a miner's pick axe! But the names in the will seem not to lead anywhere - at least not yet. In the afternoon, we visit find some Pemberton farms located outside Chester and visit with these good people. One of them, another John, and his mother Phyllis spend almost an hour chatting excitedly about their family history. They had spent many days in London, years ago, tracking down everything they could on the Pemberton's in general and their particular ("the John, Thomas, Henry branch") line in detail. We show them the first page of the old George M Pemberton scrapbook and read it together. John begins immediately to talk about the "George branch of the family, the one that went to America. They were the youngsters, you know, didn't inherit any land, so - " We suggest that the part about the King having a tiff with George was probably a fable and John interrupts and seems to demand that we understand that the Pembertons and Charles II were engaged in several transactions, some of which were not friendly. He is adamant that the old scrapbook is probably correct on this point.

Found Pembertons on their farms in Cheshire

At the suggestion of a information booth attendant, we drove out to see the Pemberton farms, just for fun. I pulled in a driveway to turn around and decided to knock on a door. The dog alarmed the residents and Kent Pemberton came out to see what we wanted. He was excited to tell us about his Pemberton line and then directed us down the road a bit to John Pemberton's house. John's wife said we should be coming in from the fields and would be at his mother's house a couple hundred yards further down the lane. There we spent a wonderful hour with John and his mother.

Research Done at Chester, Cheshire Record Office

Read 6 Pemberton wills: Myles or Great Meols (Wirral), mariner 1631; Thomas, Nantwich, yoeman, 1673; Henry, Denwall (Wirral), mariner, 1677; Robert, Norbury (Nantwich), 1683; Robert, Wrenbury (Nantwich), yeoman, 1697 (this had some interesting name so I bought a copy); and William, Norbury (Nantwich), yeoman, 1711. Could not open a fragile, tightly wound will of William, Coole Pilate, 1689; Record office may have it ready Monday.

Also checked Quaker records microfilm for Pemberton and Middleton.

Chester is an ancient port! The river Dee(?) has silted in greatly so only small vessels can navigate it now but in the 17th century, large ships came into the docks at Chester.

Found nothing exciting today. Still have to read a book on the ancient parish of Bidstone, check some more wills, look for deeds in Stapley, and

Touring Nantwich Hundred

On our way to Chester we drove through Stapley, 3 mile SSE of Nantwich, Wybunbury, Nantwich city, Wrenbury and Marbury. Took photos in each place, particularly the old churches. Nantwich is a spectacular ancient building and Marbury church sits on a hill overlooking the mere, a beautiful setting.

Wirral Notes and Quotes: Being Local Gleanings...

Wirral Notes and Quotes: Being Local Gleanings, Historical and Antiquarian Relating to the Hundred of Wirral, Wilmer Bros. and Co., Ltd., 1893, New York Public Library. Interesting old book with much historical interest. The above link is to the OCR text extracted from the images which are here. These images are pretty good. There are well over a hundred references to Pembertons in the 1600's. Difficult to use, OCR text is often unintelligible. I would like to read the whole thing!

Tasks for our Visit to Cheshire

1. Since we have found only one Sarah Middleton, and she is from Nantwich, and the Georgius son of Georgii of Marbury has the most likely birth date for our immigrant: -
2. Since there are two cases of George son of George in Chester, and the scrapbook mentions both Chester and Cheshire: -

The Geography of the Georges

Here is a list of the places where the Cheshire Parish Registers and the Bishop's Transcripts and the Non-conformist records show George Pemberton events along with the numbers and types of such.
Aspull, Lancaster 1 Quaker Burial

On the Wirral (5 births) -----
Bidstone, Cheshire 1 Burial
St Oswald, Chester 1 Burial, 1 Baptism, 2 Marriages

West Kirby, Wirral 2 Baptisms, 1 Marriage
Great Budworth 1 Burial

Woodchurch 1 Baptism

St Hillary, Wallasey 1 Burial, 2 Baptisms, 2 Marriages

Chester (6 births) ------
Tarvin 1 Baptism
Leach, Chester 1 Burial
St Bridget, Chester 1 Baptism
St Marys, Chester 2 Burials, 3 Baptisms

Nantwich (5 births) ------
Wrenbury 1 Burial, 3 Baptisms
Marbury 1 Burial, 2 Baptisms
The George son of George combination occurs only at St Mary's and St Oswalds in Chester, and in Marbury, Nantwich. In Marbury, the Georges may go back farther - there is a Georgius christening in 1596 - father is Hugonis and the mother is Maria Lloyd.

Pembertons in Virginia Monthly Meetings

Spent the evening reading all the William Wade Hinshaw historical backgrounds of the Monthly Meetings in Virginia, wondering if they would show a Pemberton as more than just a member of the Society of Friends. They didn't.

Wrenbury Parish, Nantwich Hundred

WRENBURY (St. Margaret), a parish, in the union and hundred of Nantwich, S. division of the county of Chester; containing, with the townships of Broomhall, Chorley, Woodcott, and parts of Dodcottcum-Wilkesley, Newhall, and Soond or Sound, 2300 inhabitants, of whom 527 are in the township of Wrenbury with Frith, 5½ miles (S. W. by W.) from Nantwich. In Wrenbury township are 2073 acres, the soil of which is partly clay and partly sand. A branch of the Chester canal passes through the parish. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £150; patron, the Vicar of Acton. The church has a fine carved-oak ceiling, and an elegant tower. A school is endowed with the interest of £230; and a second school with the interest of about £500, to which additions are likely to be made, and a house built for the master.

A Topographical Dictionary of England, Samuel Lewis, 1848, pg 695

Marbury, Cheshire on the Northern Border of Shropshire

MARBURY, a parish, in the union and hundred of Nantwich, S. division of the county of Chester; containing, with the township of Norbury, 784 inhabitants, of whom 383 are in the township of Marbury cum Quoisley, 3 miles (N. N. E.) from Whitchurch. This parish, which takes its name from two meres, called respectively the greater and the less, is situated at the extremity of the county, bordering upon Shropshire. It comprises 3152 acres, of which 1754 are in Marbury cum Quoisley; the soil is a light sand, with some peat. The parish is intersected by a branch of the Chester and Ellesmere canal. Courts leet are held for the manors of Marbury and Norbury. The living is united to the rectory of Whitchurch: the tithes have been commuted for £327, and the glebe comprises 9 acres. The church, an ancient structure, has an elegant chancel, rebuilt by the late Earl of Bridgewater. There are several charitable bequests in money, amounting to about £300, with two small crofts of land and some rent-charges.

MARBURY, a township, in the parish of Great Budworth, union of Northwich, hundred of Bucklow, N. division of the county of Chester, 2 miles (N. by W.) from Northwich; containing 37 inhabitants. It comprises 360 acres, of a sandy soil. The Grand Trunk canal passes through the township. Marbury Hall is a seat of the Smith Barry family; the mansion was rebuilt in 1846, in the style of the age of Louis XIV.

Both of the above are from: A Topographical Dictionary of England, Samuel Lewis, 1848, pg 258

Extracting all Pemberton Events from FamilySearch

Today I am in the Cheshire Parish Registers on FamilySearch. Did a search using no Christian name and Pemberton, all events, 1300 - 1700. I am extracting all Christenings and marriages up to 1690, and burials up to 1700.

A Pemberton - Middleton / Wilmslow - Wrenbury Connection

[Note: the following entry is based on the assumption that the place names presented on the web were correct as stated. However, since then I have discovered that there is a whole group of events across many names that show this same anomaly. So this entire post is about an error and hence of negative value. I leave it only because someone may have copied it and it is better for them to find this later than to find nothing.]
I have found the following intriguing events:

George Pemberton Baptism in Wilmslow, 08 Feb 1624 principal's residence in Wrenbury
George Pemberton Burial in Wilmslow, 16 Oct 1684 principal's residence in Wrenbury
Elizabeth Middleton Burial in Wilmslow, 28 Jun 1688 principal's residence in Wrenbury

They took baby George to Wilmslow to baptise him and also to bury him 60 years later? (He seems much too old to be the husband of Sarah Middleton.) That's reasonable. But why did they also bear Elizabeth Middleton 25 miles to bury her?

It seems to me that if we assume this Wilmslow/Wrenbury connection is a strong one, then the Elizabeth Middleton is one of the following (not in any particular order):
1. Elizabeth Anyname who married a Middleton
2. George's Pemberton's sister Elizabeth who married a Middleton
3. The spinster daughter of a Middleton

That little exercise seems to under score the relevance of the connection, but t also raises the question: Which family name was the compelling one here: Pemberton or Middleton, or maybe even both? Since George is the male, it is likely that the Pemberton name is the draw to Wilmslow. That seems to give more weight to the maiden name Pemberton for Elizabeth Middleton.

John Pemberton merchant, shipping to Virginia Pembertons

From the book Rev. Daniel Brown of Culpeper Co., VA, and Related Families, written by Woolsey Finnell published in late 1890's in a Chapter on Pembertons says: "During 1707 John Pemberton, a merchant of Liverpool, England, shipped several large consignments of Goods to the Pembertons of King Williams Parish." This is from an email from Dixie of today's date.

The Pickax Dream

I actually had the dream three times. Once one night and then twice the next (the 21st of March I think). All it amounted to was a picture. A pickax, like the classical miner would have carried, with the pointed end completely embedded in newly tilled ground and the handle resting full length on the soil. The sort of narrow spade thingy opposite the pointed end is sticking straight up and there is a small piece of paper attached somehow to it. There is something "written" on the paper, and when I get close enough to try to read it, it is just a funny collection of a few curved lines and dots. The marking on the paper seems totally enigmatic to me in the dream, but I am reminded of arabic writing as I recall it later that day, because of the curvy lines below with dots above. I didn't have any idea what to make of it, although as I had the dream I immediately associated it with genealogy.

Part two of this funny little thing, is that while reading the wills today (the ones I received the day after the third dream), when I got down to the bottom of one of them where the "signatures" are and see his mark and notice the dots in it, I am reminded immediately (although these are very different) of the marks on the paper on the tip of the pick axe spade - just because there are some lines and some dots. So you can be sure that I will be on the lookout for a will, or other document that contains the mark I saw on the pick's spade.

The % of Parish Data Now Online in Cheshire

By 1700 there were about 115 parishes in Cheshire. Of these, about 55 are considered key parishes by the extraction/publication program now going on here. Of these 55, 21 are now online, 10 more are nearly ready to publish, and another 10 are in various stages of extration, etc. Since the key parishes are probably the larger ones, it looks like when the project is done, maybe half the total parish records for that period will be published. For details, see email from Bernard Diaz, project manager dated today.

George Pemberton in court in Virginia

In the Executive Journals of the Council of Colonial Virginia, we read this on or about 20 October 1732:

"Ambrose Joshua Smith having petitioned for a Grant of 400 Acres of Land lying on the north side of Newford River & joyning to the Lands of Capt. Crawford & Benja Saunders Survey'd in the Year 1727 for George Pemberton who hath neglected to Sue out a Patent for the same It is ordered that the sd Pemberton be sumoned to attend this Board at the next Court of Oyer & Terminer to answer the said Petition."

A George son of George Pemerton in Durham in 1655

Found this today on FindMyPast.co.uk:

George PeMEton, son of George of Lumley, Chester-le-Street, baptised 7 Jan 1655 in Durham, England.

Also a George Pemerton burial 16 Oct 1684 in Wrenbury, Cheshire with Dedication at St. Margaret.

Searched Cheshire Record Office Catalogue

Have previously searched Cheshire Record Office for Pemberton, Middleton, and Loyd/Lloyd: Freemen of Chester and Wills Database and ordered 6 wills: still waiting for them. Searched new Cheshire Trade Directories, Chester City Gaol registers, Military Records - nothing even remotely interesting on any of these names.

Map of Pemberton and Middleton plots on Tithing Maps

Mapped Pemberton and Middleton plots indexed on the Tithing maps. The Middletons plots are mostly in tight little groups. When I search for Pemberton owners and occupiers, I get a bunch of John's, Roger's and Joseph's. The same search for Middleton's get 3 small plots, owned and occupied by John Middleton.

Where is the Pemberton's Huff sign?

Tony Bostock, perhaps the best local history authority in Cheshire, says this:

"A possible answer is that during the 18th century parts of the wastelands around the city of Chester were divided into lots and fenced off for the benefit citizens of the City. An area of the waste was known as 'the Hough' and the Pemberton family had land here near Windmill Hill. Despite the chronology, in all probability this is what is being referred too as it is likely that such allocations were established during the 17th century and then later formalised."

This infers to me, that this was a gratuitous act of some secular authority. If this was "ordered" by the King, or under the recommendation of the King, it is easy to see the origin of a family story about the King's involvement and the "circumstance that took place between the king and himself" was simply that George was a citizen and the King was a king. This story, after all, is one that once told, will never be forgotten by any Pemberton.

Jane Houghton, in her email says this about the sounds of "huff" and "hough": "Hough as in a hill and also the surname of that ilk is pronounced Huff in Chesire and Lancashire as in 'he went off in a huff'."

We must not ignore the possibility that whoever "penned" the couplet may have used "huff" on a sign beside Pemberton's Hough so as to make a pun.

Lloyd's in early Virginia

"There is on record in Richmond county, a power of attorney from John Lloyd, of the cit of Chester, Eng., to his 'worthy kinsman, Griffin Fauntleroy, gent,' which states that he owned several considerable plantations in Virginia, which had been entrusted to his brother Thos. Lloyd, lately deceased. Another deed speaks of lands he inherited from his brother Thomas. Thomas Lloyd was a justice of Richmond county. His inventory, dated 1699, shows a very large estate." CD 174 Virginia Vital Records #1, 1600s-1800s, Virginia Tax Records, Tithables of Lancaster County, Va., 1654 © The Learning Company, Inc. March 3, 2010

"many poor distressed ... Quaquers"

In the long and complex will of Richard Moss, of Mobberley, Cheshire, 1683, published in Volume 40, Issue 3, March 2010 Cheshire Ancestor, the quarterly Journal of the Family History Society of Cheshire, we read his will which includes the following:

Item takeinge into consideration the great afflictions and sufferings of many poor distressed people in this nation commonly called Quaquers, itt is my will and mind and I doe hereby give and bequeath to such of them in Cheshire as are thought ffitt objects of charity the sume of One Hundred pounds And to such of them in and about London the sume of Two Hundred pounds the same to be given to such pson and psons for the uses afore said in such sort and manner and att such time and times as my Excrs hereafter named and ye aforesaid Mr Nicholas Andrews shall think ffittinge.

£100 in today's pounds would be £8,300 or $13,000 to the Quakers in Cheshire. Is this the funding of George's passage to America? Just a thought.

Limiting Facts in the George & Sarah Findings

It occurred to me today, that it may be time to start playing Scrabble with the letter tiles we have found so far just to see how many words could be formed. And then, I realized that we have very few tiles so I decided instead to draw the Venn diagram for what we have. Here are the limits of the circles of the Venn diagram:
There are no George Pemberton events in Cheshire Parish Resgisters between 1663 and 1759. We have tabulated the earlier ones.
There are no George Pemberton events in Lancashire Parish Registers until after at least 1722 except a marriage in 1621 (to Elizabeth Greaves) and a baptism in 1714 both of which are tabulated.
There are no George Pemberton events in the non-conformist records in RG 4 thru RG 8* except the Quaker burial in Lancashire in 1674.
There are no Sarah Pemberton (as a married name) events in Cheshire Parish Registers until 1747.
There are no Sarah Pemberton (as a married name) events in Lancashire until 1718.
There are no Sarah Pemberton events in Cheshire/Lancashire in RG 4 thru RG 8* until 1774. There are 8 earlier ones, all in Essex.
There is a Mrs Pemberton from Middleton Hall burial in Cheshire in 1720.
There is only 1 Sarah Middleton event in Cheshire Parish Registers before 1750: a baptism on 17 Jan 1664.
There are no Sarah Middleton events in Lancashire Parish Registers before 1771.
There are no Sarah Middleton events in Cheshire/Lancashire in RG 4 thru RG 8* until 1801.
Therefore if we are content: 1) to confine our searches to Cheshire and Lancashire, and 2) to assume that our ancestors' births, marriages and deaths would be recorded; then we have found them. However, these are not trivial conditions.
Except for a couple loose ends that I need to finish checking, it looks like we may have all there is from these sources. Hopefully wills and deeds will give us further enlightenment.
*RG 4 etc. are the non-conformist archives in the British National Archives.

Searched Roger Whitley's Diary

Roger Whitley's Diary is a wonderful source of terse but intimate information about Chester, Cheshire in the years 1684 - 1697. Roger was a Cheshire gentleman of some influence and his diary is rich with names and, of course, dates. He was a Whig member of Parliament for Chester from 1689 to 1697.
I searched it for the following terms:
Pemberton, George Pemberton, Sarah Pemberton, Sarah Middleton, Quaker, Lloyd, Loyd [occurs 12 times], Brooks, Doctor Hall. Found nothing of any particular interest but also found it difficult to quit reading his diary - it is very interesting. I think it would be wise if Dixie would search the names she knows from early Virginia.

I saw a lot of Jackson's but no August Jackson.

Place Named "Hough Hill" is in Chester, Cheshire 1688

In Roger Whitley's Diary on the date of 16 April 1688, Roger records:

"Monday, I went to Chester; dined at Jackson's with the Sheriffe, Brandon, Bellot & many other gentlemen (& one Ensigne Gaywood) then I went with 2 Lees to Dr Angells; then we went in my coach to meete the Judge at Hough hill; soe to the Castle; I & Swetnam went to see Mrs Shakerly, she was abroad; saw her husband, 2 Mrs Hurlestons &c; ..."

Quaker Pemberton Burial in Lancashire in 1674

The following: "George Pemberton of Aspull belonging to Blackrod Meeting was buried the 31st of 11 month 1674" found in Register of Births, Marriages and Burials from the Monthly Meeting of Lancaster, Lancashire from 1644 to 1691, British National Archives RG6/1004. Aspull is in Wigan, Lancashire and 29 miles (as the crow flies) from Chester, Cheshire. Blackrod is about 5 miles NE of Wigan and is a chapelry in the Parish of Bolton le Moors (now Bolton) in the Salford Hundred. Bolton was a "hotbed of Puritanism". See or download a pdf of the archive here. Note that these "non-conformist" documents cannot be viewed on the National Archives web site, but are available at http://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/bmdr/ but you must be a logged-in subscriber.

George Pemberton Wills in Cheshire

Found these four wills on Lancashire Wills Search for George Pemberton. The numbers are for LDS microfilms reels and the places are all in Cheshire.

1683 Norbury 89651/89652

1686 Wallasey 89664

1684 Wrenbury 89656

1731,2 Norbury 89764

These are all in Cheshire.

Early Land Records of W. Virginia

Searched for William Hall on Ancestry.com in the book Sims Index to Land Grants in West Virginia, Edgar B. Sims, State Auditor, Charleston, West Virginia, 1952
"The land grants listed herein were made by Lord Fairfax prior to the creation of the Virginia Land Office, by the Commonwealth of Virginia, of lands now embracing the State of West Virginia; and, by the State of West Virginia, under its first Constitution. "

Found:

William Hall 486 Acres near Elk Branch, 1756 see book 1 pg 234

William Hall 2,236 Acres near Howard's Marsh, 1764 see book 2 pg 477

Cheshire Pemberton Burials 1560 -1871

I have published my extractions of the Pemberton burials of Cheshire from the Cheshire Parish Record data base. The file is in burial date order and I stopped extracting the details after 1759 except for a George buried 3 Sept 1785.

Interesting History of Pemberton Surname

Read here and here.

The crest at left is from the latter "here".

It seems that the three buckets always appeared on the Pemberton's. I have seen a couple crests in a Pemberton family church south of Cambridge and they both have the chevron with three buckets. I wonder what's in them.

Baptists & Quakers in Cheshire, 1650 - 1690

Reading A history of the Town and Parish of Nantwich or Wich-Malbank : in the County Palatine of Chester, printed for the author James Hall, Willaston, Nantwich, 1883. Found on ancestry.com here.

"On the 20th Nov. 1682, orders were published in the Churches of Ceshire to present all that come not to Church and to the Sacrament if above sixteen. (Philip Henry's Diaries, p. 319); and for a few years the Dissenters here, as elsewhere, were silenced; but when the Toleration Act of 1689 was passed, there were two distinct congregations of Protestant Dissenters in this town; namely, the Presbyterians, and the Baptists." pg 384.
"The Quakers suffered severe persecution in Charles II reign; and in 1685, it is said no less than 1,460 were imprisoned in England and Wales; and great numbers sailed to America, and settled in the newly founded Quaker colony of Pennsylvania, amongst whom were many from Cheshire, who probably built the city of Chester in that State... In 1721 there were thirteen Quaker families in Nantwich.–(Notitia Cestriensis)." pg 398.

The index of the book lists the following, which did not add anything exciting -

Middleton, Elizabeth, 341

________John, 202, 341

________Sir Thomas, 154-157,178n., 193

Pemberton, Ann, 362

_________John, 350

_________Richard, 341

_________William, 228

Searched the Domesday Survey of 1086

No Pemberton's, a couple Pembridge's. No Myddleton's. Many Middleton's, none in Cheshire. There are a number of ..berton's, including a Roger Emberton in Buckinghamshire.
See email to Dixie of this date for more.

To Do's

See if you can find anything in
GenealogyLinks.net/Lancashire or in Lancashire Parishes.

Email Online Parish Clerks of Lancashire about few Middletons and Pembertons in Middleton Parish church, St Leonards AND who was this Mrs. Pemberton from Middleton Hall.

Email Cheshire Parish Register Transcription Project about viewing baptisms in original records of Chester, St Mary for 1634 - 1660.

Read emails from Cheshire Parish Register Transcription Project director - comments about Pemberton/Middleton

Check for some good data here: http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/england/lancashire/parish-registers.htm

Seaching OriginsNetwork and Norfolk

Spent the afternoon looking for any Pemberton's, Middleton's, Brooks in Wisbech, Norfolk. Subscribed to originsNetwork to access their records. Nothing today.

Did get some nice maps of Cheshire and Lancashire.

George Pembertons' Events & Wills, Cheshire 1652 - 1711

Dixie found a George Pemberton, feltmaker, 1652, in the Cheshire Extracted Parish Records in Marton Marriages, Addenda Et Corrigenda (Marriage) located in the Collection: Cheshire: Chester - Freemen of The City of Chester, 1392 - 1700.

Also a marriage on 29 May ca 1709, of George Pemberton of Marbury, Co. Chester, agric. and Beatrice Twiss of St. John's parish in the city of Chester, spr., aged about 30 years. Bnd in the same Marton Marriages in Cheshire: - Marriage Bonds of Archdeaconry of Cheshire, 1707 - 1711

Also a list of wills, see her email of today.

Map of Middleton, Lancashire with Hall & Churches

Here is an 1848 map of Middleton, Lancashire. St Leonards church's label is right on top of the big "O" in the center of the map, Middleton Hall is about 3 of these "O's" below the "O", and St Michaels is between the black, bold "T" and "O" lower right. This "TO" is the beginning of Tonge. If our work proves that we are in the right place here, I will purchase this map on nice parchment paper.
Middleton is shown three times on this map because (I think) we are looking at Middleton town in Middleton Township in Middleton Parish.
Middleton Hall was torn down in 1845 and a large cotton mill built on the site. In the map we see a Cotton Mill: go north from the East end of the Hall, around the turn, take a left to the Mill.

Four Middleton Events in Middleton Parish???

Dixie points out that there are only four events in this Parish's entire history with the name Middleton attached! Also, there are only two Pemberton events. A real curiosity - maybe the transcription process is only partially complete there?

I sorted the Pemberton records I have extracted, and the predominant parishes in Lancashire are St Mary the Virgin, St Peter, All Saints, and St Michael. I have having a "Dickins" of a time figuring out just where these are.

Finished Lancashire Pemberton Extractions

I completed the extraction work for all Pemberton events from the Lancashire Parishes. Now to examine what I've got.

Historical Background of Pemberton and Middleton

From British History web site a rich information source including gazetteers:
"Coal-mining is the principal industry. There are stone quarries, boiler works, iron foundry, cotton mill, and brick-making. The soil is loam and clay, with subsoil of clay, stone, and coal; potatoes and oats are grown, and there is some pasturage."

Apparently Lancashire was once named Lancaster.
Footnotes talk at some length about the Pemberton's beginning ca. 1200AD, including a George son of John.
A curiosity: "Roger Lowe records that on 1 June 1665 he went to see the burning well at Pemberton, 'and we had two eggs which was so done by no material fire'". This is probably natural gas. It is coal country.
A wonderful book, A Topographical Dictionary of England (by Samuel Lewis, Editor, 1848) talks of Middleton Hall, St Leonard church (where "Mrs Penberton from Middleton Hall" was buried), etc etc.

A Penberton - Middleton Connection before 1720

While extracting records from the Lancashire Parishes (go here, click on the Middleton Parish, on the resulting search screen enter Pemberton and notice a pull down menu with St Leonard pre-selected) , I see this entry:

Burial: 21 Oct 1720 St Leonard, Middleton, Lancashire, England
Mrs Penberton from Middleton Hall

As shown here, St Leonard would be the name of the church in Middleton Parish, between Manchester and Rochdale, Lancashire.

I did a little checking and it looks like there was a well known Middleton Hall there once owned by the Assheton's. The Hall takes its name from the city rather than a prior owner. The salient fact in all this, is that "Mrs. Penberton from Middleton Hall", places her firmly in the Parish of St Leonard's church.

Here is the web page for the church . It is a very unusual one, I have never before seen a church in England with a wooden cap to its always stone tower. The list of Rectors on that page begins with a Middleton (13th Century) and shows a number of Assheton's between the sailing of Columbus to the birth of the parents of our George and Sarah.

Thursday, February 11 - What a wonderful example of my "genealogical handicap"!! It never once crossed my mind last evening, that this could be our Sarah Pemberton, a widow (Mrs Penberton) gone home to finish her days. Truly I am Jack the Knerd, social connections are virtually invisible to me.

In regard to the spelling "Penberton", there are only 2 other Penberton spellings in the 3,123,753 entries of the Lancashire Parish Records project, viz.

Baptisms: 15 Jul 1838 St John, Preston, Lancashire, England
Mary Penberton - Child of Thomas Penberton & Esther

So this is not a family spelling - just a clerical one.

An interesting insight into old England in general and the word "Comoditye" in particular

In a "Transcript of the contents of a Bound Volume of Documents Dated 1 Jac. 1603", "Compiled and Edited by J. C. Dewhurst, F.R.I.B.A., (Ret.) 1943" now in the Cheshire Archives, I found this entertaining and enlightening discourse, to wit:

... "And being accompanyed with the L. Strange, the L. Mountegle and Sir John Savage, attended with Sir Richard Sherborne and some fewe others, men of speciall choyce and place in his secret counsailes, hee came again to the Cittye. And sitting in person in the Exchequer hee sent for the Maior and Sherifes to come unto him, who hereupon appeared in Courte; unto whome the Earle then spake as followeth:--

THE ORATION OF YE EARLE

"FORASMUCH as yt hath pleased the Queene's most excellent majestie to appointe mee Officer in this Charge and form w'ch hath gouvernmente not only of the county palatine of Chester, But also of the countie of the Citye of Chester, being parcell and w'thin the same countye palatine, as a Chancelor or Head Officer in Equitye, to mainteyne the Just and to reforme the wronge. Wherein, nevertheless, bee divers and sundrie officers and ministers to execute the Lawes committed to their Charge and authoritye as you Mr. Maior, the Sherifes, Coroners, Constables and others, verie necessarie in every yor offices and Degrees. The well doinge whereof tendeth to your Comoditye [advantage] and mainteineth the estate of the Citye, by the Queene's Majestye's noble progenitors, Earles of Chester, founded and made. And contrariwyse the abuse and evill doinge of any yor officers procureth yor owne Discomoditye and Hindrance and provoketh the overthrowe and Distruction of yor Estate and authoritye, which I rather wishe to bee mainteyned then otherwise decayed. And hearing of some disobedience or disorder practized by you the Officers of the Citye now in my tyme of being Officer, otherwise then before hath bene used or donne and otherwise then Duetye requireth to dooe. ..."

Note that "[advantage]" appears in the text of the publication I have in my hand. I presume that Mr. Dewhurst was the inserter, but prior publications are listed inside the back cover so I cannot be certain.

One Peter Middleton is listed later in the document as an "Attorneye" in the "offices of the Exchequer of the Countie Palatyne of Chester".

Extracting Pemberton's from Lancashire Parishes

I started working the Lancashire Parishes source today. I am extracting all parish records of Pemberton in all its various spellings from the earliest records up to 1750 (or when I wear out of the task).

To Do: Search Cheshire Wills

The following are non-ancestry.com links:
Cheshire wills are here.
Also may be something here.

William Hall & Hannah Richardson

Checked both in Hinshaw in Virginia - nothing.
Checked both bapt in Cheshire Parish Register Project CPRdb - a few teasers recorded in ResearchSavedInCase for William.
Checked both marr in same - nothing.
Checked both in Non-Parochials of theGenealogist.com - nothing

Pemberton Huff Notes from Wigan Archaeological Society

The George M Pemberton Scrapbook contains this fascinating couplet:

"While olives are green and commodities rough
Here is the place for Pemberton's huff."
If we could just locate the place of this unique object, we would have pin pointed the location of our George Pemberton, born in Cheshire about 1660.

This is an extract from an email forwarded to me by Dixie originally written Oct 2006
Hello Dixie Ann,
 
As we are an archaeological society, family histories are not are speciality. However Christine Watts or Alan Davies at the Wigan Heritage Services may be able to help at heritage@wlct.org. Also there is a Family History Society in Wigan, their web address is www.ffhs.org.uk/members/wigan.htm . 
 
What we can tell you is that the township of Pemberton lies just a few miles southwest of Wigan and was incorporated in to Wigan Borough in the early 1900's. Both Pemberton and Wigan have always been in the county of Lancashire, at least until the boundary changes of the 1970's (now we are all in Greater Manchester). I suspect Pemberton Hough is probably in Cheshire which traditionally lay south of the River Mersey. However Wigan Parish originally came under the diocese of Chester, as did most of Lancashire (up until 1880 when the diocese of Liverpool was created). I haven't heard of the name Pemberton Hough but I will certainly make enquires through our society.
 
Bill Aldridge
(secretary)
Wigan Archaeological Society 

Neither one [Christine Watts or Alan Davies] was able to help. But Aldridge was not the only one to point out that "Hough" rhyming with rough, pronounced huff, referred to husbandry, farming.  Later, hough refered to hamstrings or livestock and the pronounciation changed.
-----------------
This Blog's Author's notes: So the couplet might have used "hough" and meant a farm rather than a fit of frustration. This presupposes that the couplet was passed down verbally at some point, or someone doing transcription thought to update the spelling. All possibilities.
Also so:
The village Pemberton and Wigan have always been in Lancashire and the archaeologist prefers to believe that if there was a Pemberton Hough it would have been in Cheshire. There are several villages in Cheshire with "Hough" in their names.

Suggested Pemberton's Huff to BBC "Trackers"

From an email from S & N Genealogy Supplies email of 25 Jan 2010:
Do you want to track down a missing relative, loved one or close friend but don’t have the resources?
Or perhaps your genealogical search has gone cold and you don’t know where to turn?

Help is at hand in the form of "trackers" who will be filmed as part of a new BBC primetime television programme.

Our team, with expertise in genealogy and people finding, may be able to help you find your missing person or lost contact.

Please contact for more information: trackers@RDFTelevision.com or 0207 751 7304

Frequencies of Surnames in Church of England & Quaker Records

I did some macro work on surname frequencies to see what I might learn about the probabilities of various names being quaker or Church of England, etc. Here is the result.

Published Middleton Cheshire Parish Extracted Data

I have fabricated marriage records from burials (leaving the burial date in the record) and added them and actual marriage records to the baptismal records to create one file named PemBaptMarrBuri. Marriage records come in three types:
1. marr - a true marriage record extracted directly from marriage records
2. mard - a fabricated marreage record created by duplicating a burial record that had mother data in it
3. mars - a fabricated marriage record created by copying burial records where the wife was the new widow and the"burier".
I sorted this data by date, then in descending order of the record type (to put marriages ahead of baptisms, then on the father's forename to create tentative family groups. By scanning down the father's forename column you see all the records with the same father's Christian name in a group.
You can see the sorted file here.
For details on how this was done, see the file aReadMe.txt in the Cheshire Parishes Project folder.

Sent email probes to Family History Society of Cheshire

I sent emails to the chairmen of the Nantwich and Chester areas telling them about "Pemberton's Huff" and asking for any assistance. I will update this post as replies return.
Nantwich: Sue Church - reply of Jan 29 - no hits there
Chester: David Guyton

Tentative Pemberton Families in Cheshire Published

I have fabricated marriage records from burials (leaving the burial date in the record) and added them to the baptismal records to create one file named PemBaptMarr. Marriage records come in three types:
1. marr - a true marriage record extracted directly from marriage records
2. mard - a fabricated marreage record created by duplicating a burial record that had mother data in it
3. mars - a fabricated marriage record created by copying burial records where the wife was the new widow and the"burier".
I sorted this data by date, then in descending order of the record type (to put marriages ahead of baptisms, then on the father's standardized forename to create tentative family groups. By scanning down the father's forename column you see all the records with the same father's Christian name in a group. The marriages where that father would appear as a husband will be before the baptisms.
You can see the sorted file here.
For details on how this was done, see the file aReadMe.txt in the Cheshire Parishes Project folder.

Note: Feb 21, 2010 I republished this file because the old file had some records missing. The new file also has a new column of standard forenames for the fathers/grooms so the family groups are less fragmented by different spellings. The down side is, of course, that some formerly separated groups are now merged into one family. The forename of record is also there so you can sort that out.

Possible Pemberton Families in Cheshire, UK

This is a little spreadsheet where I have collected the more promising finds from the Cheshire Parish Register Transcription Project and www.theGenealogist.com's Non_Parochial BMD data and combined them.
The potential family tree this data suggests goes like this:
Lines 60 - 63 is the oldest family group (Note the father is John). Line 61 of this family -
is the father of the family group lines 50 -56. Line 54 of this group -
is the father of the family group lines 27 - 47. Line 34 -
is the father of the family group lines 20 - 24. Line 20 -
is our progenitor George who married Sarah Middleton, line 69
It is interesting to note that if this tree is correct, the John Pemberton father (lines 60 - 63) is right where we might expect him in chronology. The Pennsylvania Pembertons arrived there a century before ours arrived in Virginia and there were many John's among them. There are none in my direct line, and only one anywhere (a brother to my direct line Robert L).

Cheshire Parish Register Transcription Project

Discovered the subject has been published here and that it is a rich source!! I searched for and found some likely suspects for George and Sarah Middleton which I will post soon.

I extracted all the baptisms, marriages and burials for the Pembertons from the earliest records available to about 1760: 469 records. I put them all in a spreadsheet and sorted the data by date, parish, and father's forename which gave me tentative family groups.

Permission to Publish the Buckley Site at Ours

Received an email from Daniel's widow Dannie, giving me permission to publish their web site at PembertonFamily.com which I did here.

The Dream

"Last night I dreamed about being up on a stool at a counter giving a document back to someone at the counter. A voice clearly said “ Come any time. Just ask for what you want”… It made me feel greatly encouraged about this endeavour." See Dixie's email of this same date for details.