Col. Thomas Middleton, Surveyor of the Navy, world trader

From http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/7120.php

Middleton, Col. Thomas
L&M say…
(d.1672). Navy Commissioner, Portsmouth 1664-7; Surveyor of the Navy 1667-72; Navy Commissioner, Chatham 1672.
Little is known of his background except that he had risen to rank of colonel in the Parliamentary Army, had traded with the West Indies and New England, and had travelled both in the New World and the Mediterranean, becoming a member of the Council for Plantations in 1660… (Further info has spoilers)

A Middleton & No Pembertons in Tithing Maps of Nantwich

Searched the tithing maps (http://maps.cheshire.gov.uk/tithemaps/) for any Pembertons and Middletons near Nantwich. Found only William Middleton, who occupied a croft (plot 81) owned by William Foster and John Minshull in the township of Alvaston. William's use was mowing. It was recorded as 1 rood and 8 perches. A rood is an acre and 8 perches is 132 feet so am not certain what that means. The shape of the parcel is a fat teardrop.

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.

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.

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.

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

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".

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.

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).