Descendants of Thomas Carleton

The presumed ancestor of our Edward Carleton is one Thomas Carleton(Culton) who was in the subsidies of Beeford, County Yorkshire in the years 1523/1524.The name Thomas is the expected name of the father of John to follow in the alteration of names, a tradition that was fairly common in this period of time. In this case we have Thomas followed by John followed by Thomas follow- ed by John. There is little specific data available concerning this Thomas. The chronology and the locations are consistent.

John Carleton, son of Thomas Carleton, was probably born ca 150x in Beesford,York. He was buried at Brandesburton,York He is not found in later subsidies until the subsidies of 1572 which indicated that members of the family were living in Beeford and Brandesburton. The fragmentary records indicate only two members of his family,i.e., sons Thomas and Edward. The latter son Edward is known to us through the Chancery suit brought against him in 1577 where in Lord Lumley charged that Edward Carleton had purchased the manor of Hempholme but had failed to complete the purchase by not paying the full amount L1500 agreed upon. This situation sheds some light on the status of our Carletons. Edward known as “Edward Carleton of Beeford , Esq” indicates he was in a class status; purchasing property for the sum like L1500 indicates a fair degree of wealth in the family.

Thomas Carleton, son of John Carleton, was born ca 1525/1530 in Beeford. He died prior 01 May 1582 at which time his widow “Janet” was appointed administrator of his estate; she later on in this same year presented he own account. Thomas married Jennett Wilson daughter of William and Helen (–) Wilson. Our Thomas Carleton appears as being well established in Beeford in 1573; his friend, William Morris, bequeathed to him “my best cote and my daggar”; William Morris also joined in giving bonds for payment of legacies in the same will. William Morris, obviously a good friend of Thomas Carleton, was in good financial condition.

The parish register of Beeford (beginning with 1563) is not early enough to show the record of marriage or the birth of children of Thomas Carleton; however, it is set forth in the Chancery suit of his eldest grandson, Thomas Carleton of Lockington, in 1625. It notes that Jennett, wife of Thomas Carleton, Senior, was the only sister of Thomas Wilson, gentleman. It appears that Thomas Wilson died abour 1609, leaving his wife, Agnes, executrix of his will, and that grand- nephew and name sake, Thomas Carleton, the plaintiff of 1625, was heir to his houses and lands in Kingston-on-Hull. It appears clear that our Thomas Carleton had no large family, at least to reach maturity, since all the names found after the beginning of the Beeford parish register can be placed in the family of his one son known to us ,i.e., John Carleton, born about 1550-1555.

John Carleton, of Beeford, born perhaps about 1550-1555, was buried at Beeford 27 Jan 1623. He married Ellen, daughter of Walter Strickland of Sizergh, county Westmoreland, Esquire. She, Ellen, is specifically mentioned as wife in John Carleton’s first land transaction of which there is record, the fine by which he and Philip Hawdenby sold land in Great Kelke in 1582, the year of birth of his son, Walter Carleton, father of the American immigrant, Edward Carleton..She survived her husband, being commended in his will to loving obedience on the part of her sons. It should be noted that this marriage to Ellen Strickland, coupled with our Edward Carleton’s marriage to Ellen Newton, opens up a very extensive significant ancestry for the descendants of Edward Carleton of Rowley,Ma.

The records of Beeford Manor Court show that the will of Henry Dryver was proved in 1586 before William Thomson, clerk, and John Carleton, steward of said Court, with the inventory reflecting a debt of L7 owed to John Carleton by the testator.John Carleton was frequently men- tioned as steward of the Court until 1914 covering a period of about twenty-eight years. The fact that he could write the Latin probate records for this court indicates that he was a man of education beyond what would be expected in a countryman. Notes from the manorial records of Holme-on-Spaulding-Moor (a south Yorkshire parish whence came several families with Rev. Ezekiel Rogers to America) reveal the fact that our John Carleton was steward of the manor court there in 1619. Our John’s later activities appear in his purchases of land in Beeford in 1611/1612 and finally in Hornsea and Great Hatfield (from his son Walter, and the latter’s brother-in-law, John Ombler in 1621).

John Carleton’s original will, written in his own hand and bearing his autograph twice, is still in a good state of preservation. In this will, all the daughter-in-laws are treated with the same regard as his one real daughter, Ann. The death date, place, and the will of his wife, Ellen, has not been found. Our John Carleton was a man of some means and responsibility.

References:

Walter Carleton, third son and fourth child of the above John and Ellen(Strickand) Carleton of Hornsea was baptized at Beeford 29 Dec 1582 and died at Hornsea 4 Oct 1623. He married (license dated 1607 at Hornsea) Jane Gibbon, daughter of Peter and Margery (–) Gibbon of Great Hatfield and Hornsea.

Walter Carleton was the first of the family to leave the old homestead, for which he had such an affection that he returned to Beeford for the christening of his first two children. His ability immediately commended him to the Gibbon family, for in the year following his marriage he was joined with the mother of his very young wife in the administration of the estate of Peter Gibbon. A similar expresssion of confidence is to be seen twelve years later, when he was named super- visor in the will of his wife’s stepfather, William Ombler. In his will dated 15 Mar. 1622, but not proved until 1626, it may be inferred that Walter Carleton’s most important lands (in Great Hatfield, probably part of the Gibbon estate) went to his son Edward. Mrs. Jane (Gibbon) Carleton married again, 23 Jan. 1626, William Birkell,Jr., of Mappleton She took the younger children with her to Mappleton but our Edward remained in Hornsea until at least until 1629.

References:

Edward Carleton, the first of our Carleton ancestors to come to America, was born in Hornsea, county Yorkshire, and baptized in Beeford 20 Oct. 1610. He married, at St. Martin, Micklegate, York, on 03 Nov 1636 Ellen Newton, baptized 24 Feb 1614 at Hedon, county York; she was the daughter of Lancelot and Mary (Lee) Newton.

On the death of his grandmother, Margery (Gibbon) Ombler, in 1629, “Edward Carleton of Hornsey Burton, gentleman,” was appointed by the court to succeed his father, Walter Carleton, as administrator of the unsettled portion of the estate of Peter Gibbon; this was an early indication of his ability which received recognition in his career in Rowley, Ma. Edward was, according to his marriage license, of Barmston. It is surmised that he may have gone to this parish adjacent to Beeford after his Mother with the younger siblings had moved to Mappleton, the home of her second husband William Birkell,Jr. His move to Barmston was probably due to the fact that Thomas Norton (probably his cousin, son of father’s half brother) was living there. In Barmsted Edward Carleton would have been contact with Sir Matthew Boynton, lord of the manor, who was known to have been interested in the migration to Massachusetts. It is possible that Edward Carleton was acting as a steward or agent for Sir Matthew.

In 1638, Edward and his wife Ellen sold a considerable property in Ryhill (near her birthplace), a township where the Newton family had held lands for more than one hundred years. The disposi- tion of the Great Hatfield property was maybe done in this same time period.. Very soon after the sale of these properties, Edward Carleton with his wife Ellen and infant son, John, joined the party of Rev. Ezekiel Rogers for the journey to America; they embarked, probably from Hull, in the ship “John of London” which reached Massachusetts in the autumn of 1638. In the spring of 1639 the company commenced settlement of the town of Rowley, where the Carleton’s second son, Edward was born in October, being the first recorded birth in Rowley.

Edward Carleton was made a freeman on 18 Mar.1642 and in 1643, “Mr Edward Carleton” was a member of the committee appointed to register the several lots of all of the inhabitants. He was a selectman in laying the ministry rate. Edward was elected Deputy from Rowley to the General Court in 1643 and was returned in 1644 through 1647. In a long term dispute over land between Sir Richard Saltonstall and the town of Watertown, Mr. Edward Carleton and Mr. John Johnson were chosen as arbitrators in lieu of a potentially drawn out trial at the General Courts. The Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County show that our Edward Carleton spent much time in court service. “Mr Edward Carleton” was a member of the Grand Jury at courts held at Ipswich in1645 through 1648. He along with Capt. Briggham and Matthew Boyce were chosen and sworn to end “small causes” for Rowley (today small claims court).

Edward Carleton elected to return to England in 1648. In a letter from Edward Carleton to Gov. John Winthrop in Boston he speaks of his intention to go and says “but now the Lord is pleased to try me sadley by some unexpected news and I doe beleiue , if yet you were but fully possessed with my condition, you would very much commiserate my case”. The specifics for this decision are not known. Edward Carleton had much property and other financial assets which took quite awhile to resolve. There is an instrument dated 09 Aug. 1650 entered in Ipswich Court Records wherein “Edward Carleton of Rowley in New England” makes Humphrey Reyner and Joseph Jewett of Rowley his attorney to sell houses, land, goods etc being the estate of the “sayd Edward within the Towne pf Rowley or elsewhere in New England”. This instrument indicates that Edward Carleton had decided to stay in England. There are those who believe that Edward went back to England for maybe personal reasons and maybe on some mission for the town of Rowley. Further, it is thought that he died prior to completing “his work” in Beeford. His wife Ellen did follow her husband back to England with the the children.

Son, John Carleton did return to Rowley and there is evidence that Ellen (Newton) Carleton also came back. There is a deed of her son, John, dated 01 Jul. 1661, by which he confirmed the sale of land made by “my mother Mrs. Elinor Carleton and Mr. Joseph Jewett Attorney of my father Mr. Edward Carleton”. In this deed he speaks of himself as the only heir of his father; there is no later mention of the remaining three children who presumably were taken to England with their mother and perhaps died early. Edward Carleton died 22 May 1654 at Beeford,Yorks and his wife Ellen died 01 July 1661.

References:

Lieut. John Carleton, son of Edward and Ellen(Newton) Carleton, was born, probably in Yorkshire about 1637 and died 22 Jan. 1668 at Haverhill,Ma. He married, probably about 1658-9, Hannah Jewett, born at Rowley, Ma. 15 June 1641, daughter of Joseph and Mary (Malinson) Jewett. As “Hanna Carleton widdow” she married secondly at Salem, Ma.05 Oct. 1674, as his second wife, Christopher Babbidge of Salem; she was living as late as 27 Nov. 1706 when she with her second husband, Christopher, sold land to their son, Christopher, Jr.

John Carleton probably returned from England in 1656, lived with the Jewett family for the last two years of his minority, and then married Hannah Jewett. In the will of Joseph Jewett, dated 15 Feb. 1660, he is named, as “my son John Carleton”, one of the executors. Patience Jewett chose Mr. John Carleton as her guardian. John soon removed to the neighboring town of Haverhill as shown by a deed of William Holdredge and Isabell his wife to John Carleton of Haverhill, conveying fourscore acres of upland in Haverhill, 22 May 1662. He also purchased lands in Haverhill from Robert Swan in1663, from Edward Clark in1665, and from Robert Clements in 1667. On 11 Jan. 1664, John Carleton and his wife, Hannah, sold to John Gage for L100 300 acres in Rowley, joyning to the farm of Patience Jewett.

In 1664 Mr. John Carleton was chosen town recorder and Clerk of the Writs for Haverhill, offices in which he continued until 1668. He is recorded as a member of the Jury of trials 14 April 1668 at court held at Salisbury. He was a selectman of Haverhill. He was a Lieut. in the militia. But his active career was cut short by a sudden illness. His will was dated 15 Jan. 1668 which was one week prior to his death. He bequested his homestead and forty acres of upland to his wife Hannah with the rest of the land and estate to be divided among his sons with the customary double share to eldest son John. His will was proved 25 Jan. 1668 with the inventory amounting to L422 12s 8p. Our John Carleton was a man of promise who died too early in life.

References:

Joseph Carleton, the second son of John and Hannah (Jewett) Carleton was born in Haverhill Ma. on 21 March 1663 and died in Newbury, Ma. in1745. He married on 02 Aug. 1694 Abigail Osgood who was born 29 Aug 1673 at Andover, Ma, the daughter of Capt. Christopher and Hannah (Belknap) Osgood. She died in 1754 at Newbury, Ma. He removed from Haverhill to live in Andover, Ma. And then Boxford,Ma. And finally Newbury, Ma. Having received a grant of land from his father, it is safe to assume that he was probably a farmer and ,following family tradition , was much involved in community government and affairs.

References:

Abigail Carleton, the first daughter of Joseph and Hannah (Belknap) Carleton was born 23 May 1696 in Newbury, Ma. and died 25 July 1774 in Rowley, Ma. She married, 20 April 1720, in Bradford, Ma. Rev. Francis Worcester of Bradford, Ma.

References:

As previously mentioned, the ancestry of our Edward Carleton is very extensive and reflective of many historical personalities throughout England, Scotland, and most of Europe. A detailed list of these ancestors would literally take many pages. Included would be most of the early noble and royal houses of England, Wales, and Scotland; the Saxon Kings, the early Plantagenets thru Edward III and John of Gaunt; the kings of Scotland, and the various Princes of Wales. We find the Norman Dukes, the Carolingians, the Capets, the House of Saxony, the House of Burgundy princes and kings of Spain, the Holy Roman Emperors, the Macadonian families of southeast Europe, early Scandinavian kings, the Grand Dukes of Kiev, etc etc. This extensive ancestry will be the subject of a separate publication.