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SULSTON homepage
This section is dedicated to my one-name study of the SULSTON (SELSTONE)
family.
The origin of the surname is obscure and there are several variations in the spelling found in historical
documents. These are perpetuated today as anyone who carries the name knows
only too well.
The first record of a Sulston in Oxfordshire
is that of William Selstone (died 1719) who married Anne Wakelynne
in 1705 in Ambrosden church. William may have moved from
Their son William Selstone (1709-1770) married Sarah Hobcraft in 1730
and they had five children but two died young. We know from receipts kept in
the Oxfordshire Archives that William was a cottager
in Blackthorn and rented farmland from Mr Thomas
Cooper. He paid an annual rent of £1 7s 7d on All Saints’ Day from 1744 to
1760. In 1752, his son John Sulstone (died 1776) was
a churchwarden and overseer of the poor, so the family had reasonable standing
in the hamlet. Blackthorn was an open village and had a high number of poor
families who depended on support from the rest of the community.
In 1762, William and Sarah’s eldest son William Sulstone
(1731-1810) married Mary Pavier in Bicester and they raised a family of three
children to adulthood in Blackthorn. In 1776, this William was awarded rights
to a plot of land of ‘one rood and fourteen perches’ which was enclosed from
part of the common area of land on the green adjoining his homestead.
[Enclosure Act for Blackthorn 1776.] William and Mary’s elder son, William
Sulston (born 1764) married Hannah Ratford and moved to Crowell. Their
descendants spread out into Buckinghamshire to Little Hampden, Princes
Risborough and Aylesbury. There are at least two
current Sulston families who are descended from him.
I can trace my direct line from William
Selstone (died 1719) through John Sulston (1765-1857) who was William's
great grandson. John lived at Cowleys Farm in Piddington, Oxfordshire
from the late 1700's when his parents (William and Mary) moved from Blackthorn.
His first wife was Rebecca Tomkins and they had a son John (1795-1860) who
married Sarah Syms (about 1800-1866) in 1820. John and Sarah settled in Long
Crendon in Buckinghamshire and had a family of seven children.
John of Cowleys second wife was Hannah Haynes. They married in 1804 and
had nine children of whom eight lived to adulthood. Six of their children
married and produced at least 42 grandchildren for John and Hannah. Two of his
sons, Andrew and Richard, remained in Piddington into the beginning of this
century. Another son was Thomas Sulston (1813-1873) who married Anne Hunt in
1850. Thomas and Anne moved to Boarstall in
Buckinghamshire in 1853. Some of their descendants later emigrated to Canada,
USA and South Africa.
John and Hannah are buried in the churchyard at Ambrosden, with two of
their children. The gravestones are still intact and readable. When John died
in 1857 he left a detailed will which has been used to reconstruct the family
relationships, using additional information from his father’s will of 1810 and
the parish registers of Ambrosden and Piddington.
From 1705 to 1942, members of the Sulston family were farmers in the
South East corner of Oxfordshire. Go to Tale of Four Farms.
Go to NEWS ITEMS
·
‘The Sulston
Saga’ booklet
·
Sulston gatherings in 2008 and in Boarstall 2002
If you can contribute to the study in any way, contact me at: [email protected] (please
remove nospam before sending)
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