Pruitt of Ancient Wales
PRUITT / PRUETT OF WALES
Bill..............
You have a good way with words and i would like to read the rest of your
story.
Thanks.
Rebel Kreklow
[email protected]
> [Original Message]
> From: <[email protected]>
> To: <[email protected]>
> Date: 5/6/2007 7:12:55 AM
> Subject: Re: [PRUITT] Prewetts/Prewitts/Pruetts/Pruitts from
CarmarthenWales?
>
> Please see material from a book of the family I wrote.
Bill Pruett
---------------
One: An Ancient Name
We shall never know who that person was who first bore the surname which
became, over time, Pruett. He may well have been a Norman soldier or
journeyman
who came to England either with or following the Conquest in 1066. Another
possibility is that he may have been a half-savage Welshman from the
western
Marches. Many years ago, there was a Pruitt family reunion held in South
Carolina. A member of the Pruitt family, Dr. L.C. Branyon, addressed the
reunion
and later reprinted his talk in a small pamphlet which was obtained by my
father, Jeff W. Pruett. Dr. Branyon said he had researched the name at
Mercer
University in Macon, Georgia and at Emory University in Atlanta. He had
this to
say about the Pruett origins:
"I have been able to trace the earliest historical beginnings of the
family and name back to the 11th century, or more than eight hundred
years. By the
usual application of the laws of ethnology and genealogy, I find that the
first trace of the name appears as Norman blood, with a name strikingly
similar
to the present name. At this early stage I find the names Guelliaum
Pritte,
Johan Pritt, Jean Proute enrolled in the army of William the Conqueror.
There, after the Saxon tongue became blended with the Norman French,
during the
next 200 years. giving rise to old English, we find the name appearing as
Prewett which was maintained for several centuries even into Scotland".
Whoever that first Pruett was, he began a line bearing a name which has
come down for many centuries.
The practice of affixing surnames to people is relatively modern. The time
line of recorded history now runs nearly five thousand years. Throughout
most
of that time, people lived their lives with only one name. Population was
thin and people rarely went very far from the place of their birth during
their
lifetimes. One supposes that the kings and other nobility assumed they
were
so important that everyone knew who was who. The common folk, of course,
didn't count, anyway. Attaching some kind of description became more
common,
however, in the late middle ages in England and many other parts of Europe
when
people were often identified as "of" some place or "the" as in a
tradesman.
Thus, John-from-the-place-where-apples-grow soon became John Appleby or
John the
cooper, became John Cooper from the trade he followed. In time, other
descriptive titles were used such as John the Short or John the Bold plus
descriptions of places such as woods, hill, fields, river, church and so
on. Some of
them stuck and were adopted by descendants, who thus acquired surnames.
The
universal lack of uniformity, however, makes family tracking back into
those
times virtually impossible unless there is a public record involving
persons of
high rank.
In any event, the name Pruett is a venerable one which, in one form or
another, has appeared in English historical chronicles many times over the
centuries. It has been spelled in a variety of ways. One account suggests
that its
ancient origin may have been a combination of an archaic French root prue
or prew (proud) plus the affixes ett or itt, which are identical.
According
to the Penguin Dictionary of Surnames the root of the name is an Old
French
word translated as b valiant, doughtyb and related to Prowse, Prewett
and all
the other derivations. Perhaps our family's originator was known by some
appellation such as William the Proud (Guillaume le Prew). Phonetic
spellings of
names were common until spelling became somewhat codified during the last
100
years or so. Prewitt, Prouitt, Prout, and Puete are a few examples of such
variations. Our family name does not appear to be related to a trade such
as
are many English surnames. The name as used in English-speaking countries
is
probably related to the Anglo Saxon word "prut" or "pryte" also denoting
"proud", "gallant" or even "arrogant", probably imported by the Normans
after 1066
and clearly cousin of the words noted above. The affixes (ett and itt) are
diminutives denoting "small" or "son of" as in Adamson, Ericsson etc.
Among
the variants of the name found in European and American records are Pruet,
Prouet, Prouett, Prewitt, etc. While it is probable that some distant
ancestor
came to Britain from France, there is, of course, no proof and the
comments
here are purely speculative.
In 1995, Raymond Pruitt of Cleveland, TN conducted considerable research
in
England attempting to track down early records of Prewett families (the
most
dominant spelling of the name). He found Prewett records back to the
1500's
with a heavy representation of the name in the Salisbury, Wiltshire area.
He
provided to Richard Prewitt a long list of his findings beginning with
Margerye Prewett in 1575.
The Hall of Names, Ltd. in Great Britain reports that the name Pruett (or
its recognizable variations) has been found in ancient Welsh chronicles
pre-dating 1066. Therefore, the name's origins may not be French. This
source says
that the name was first found in Carmarthenshire in Wales. Versions of
the
family name appear as early as the thirteenth century in such records as
the
Domesday Book, Hearth Rolls, the Black Book of Exchequer and the Curia
Rolls.
In 1202, Matthew Pruet was listed in the "Pipe Rolls". In another document
it was recorded that in 1249 William Pruet and his son, Adam, "did damage
to
the King's property in Winchester". The Inquest record does not tell us
what p
unishment befell our ancient cousins for this deed. We also learn from the
Charter Rolls of King Henry VIII that in 1273 the Earl of Darby released
Reginald Pruet and his issue and their lands and holdings from
"servetutem" and
made them freemen. In 1273,, Andrew and William Pruet were mentioned in
the
"Hundred Rolls of Cambridge". In 1275, Henry Pruet was pardoned a twelve
shilling fine for contempt. In 1278, Hugh Pruet of Somerset went surety
for B# 40 and
in 1317, Thomas Pruwet of Devon was mentioned in Dwelly's Name Indices.
(All
of the foregoing references were reported by Richard Prewitt in his
published Prewitt-Pruitt Family chronicles). In those times, it was not
uncommon for
a person to be born with a surname spelled one way, marry and change the
spelling, then have another version inscribed on his or her headstone
marking a
final place of rest. Other versions of the name from these sources include
Prewett, Prewert and Prewitt. Many of these names are to be found in use
today
in Wales and in other parts of the British Isles.
While there has been a good deal of serious and scholarly work done to
track down various branches of the Pruett family, there is one account the
author
obtained from a source in England which, while perhaps a bit fanciful,
resonates with the romance of the Middle Ages. A portion of this material
follows:
"The Welsh family name Pruett emerged [from the period following the
Norman
Conquest] as a notable family name in Carmarthen where they were recorded
as a family of great antiquity seated as Lords of the manor and estates in
that shire. They were descended from Cadivor Vawn, Lord of Blaen Cuch in
Dyved.
By the 13th century they had branched to Dolwyn, Plas Landra, Hawkserook,
and Llaugharne and Egremond in Carmarthenshire. In 1202 the name was
found in
Somerset when Mathhew Pruett was Lord of the manor in that shire. In 1278
Thomas, Walter and Julianna Pruett were all land holders in Somerset. The
name was interchangeably Prytherch and Pruett, where the 'y'in Welch being
pronounced 'u'".
Hall of Names, Ltd., London
An early record of the name was the "Hundred Rolls" in the County of
Cambridge in 1273 listing Andrew and William Pruet. Records from 1327 in
Somersetshire list Thomas Pruwet, Walter Prowet and Juliana Prouet, most
probably the
same source as above with the spelling modernized by the Hall of Records.
Mary Pruett, said to have been a nurse of London, who died in 1717, is
buried at
St. Dionis Backchurch, London. During the seventeenth and early eighteenth
centuries, migration from England to America was steady in spite of the
hazards involved. There is also slim evidence of the familybs presence
in Ireland.
One scholar of Irish names has recorded the name Prut (also Prute) and the
Middle English version, Prout and Proute. The author states:
b This surname came into Ireland before the middle of the 13th century.
The
family settled in Kilkenny and Tiperary, the latter of which counties, at
least, it is still extantb .
A typical pattern of movement of Americans during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries was Westward. By the reckoning of that era, central
North
Carolina was considered west of Virginia, across the mountains. Migrations
into
South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama were even further west as the frontier
of
American civilization moved on.
There appear to have been several coats of arms granted in the Middle Ages
to people bearing the Pruett surname. The most ancient one was "silver
with a
black lion rampant" sometimes with a raven crest and bearing the motto
Deus
Pascit Corvos. Another coat is described as "azure - a chevron between
lions
rampant or (gold or yellow)". Another motto associated with the name is
"Loyal and Trustworthy" found cut into tombstones bearing the family crest
in
Gloustershire. Tracing direct descent from families granted these specific
arms
would be difficult. One internet source illustrated the crest here
without
explanation. Its authenticity is doubtful.
The foregoing survey does not necessarily suggest that our specific
family
and the other descendants of Samuel Pruett of Coosa County were in a
direct
line of descent from Welsh Lords of the Late Middle Ages or others of
distinguished history. However, it is doubtless true that the name Pruett
is an
ancient and honorable one and has persisted for many centuries.
Even the amateur researcher in genealogy such as this writer recognizes
early in his studies that sometimes records can be grossly misleading.
Tracking
down ancestors by surname sometimes reveals that an ambitious ancestor
simply
changed his name somewhere along the line for any number of reasons
-political expediency, to escape the law, change over a generation or two
due to
illiteracy and so on. Those of us who would fancy that we had a duke or
lord of
the manor might be well advised to ponder on the reality that the noble
Lord
Ancestor most probably was a poor but (one hopes) honest farmer but might
even
have been an inept pickpocket who jumped on a ship in Southampton to avoid
an overly tight necktie. Not that we have found any such miscreants in our
line . . . yet.