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.

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.

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.

"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.

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; ..."

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.

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.

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.
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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.

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).