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.