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.