WELCOME!! This website contains some of the results of my research into one branch of my ancestry - the Puleston family. So far, I have managed to trace 25 generations, back to my ancestor Hamo de Pyvelsdon, who in 1155 was living at Pyvelesdon (now called Puleston), near Newport in Shropshire.

There is some debate about the origin of the family name - de Pyvelesdon, or currently Puleston. Some say the family came over from Normandy or Brittany in 1087, but I have found no evidence for this. More likely, the name originates from the hamlet of Puleston near Newport, Shropshire. 

THE DOMESDAY BOOK

 In 1086, the hamlet was recorded on Folio 257 verso of the Domesday Book as Pliuesdone, as follows:

"Earl Edwin held it. There is 1 hide paying geld. There is land for 4 ploughs. TRE it was worth 8s. He found it waste and it is."

A "hide" was the standard measurement of land for assessing the tax due. "Geld" means tax. "TRE" is short for Tempora Rex Edwardus - in other words, in the time of King Edward the Confessor, 1042-1066.

EMRAL, WORTHENBURY, FLINTSHIRE

The de Pyvelsdon family held land in Puleston until at least 1433, but King Henry III confiscated most of it in the 1260s, as a result of the Pulestons supporting the de Montfort rebellion. Fortunately, in 1283, King Edward I granted to Sir Roger de Pyvelesdon the Emral estate near Worthenbury, Flintshire, Wales.

Pulestons lived more or less continuously at Emral until the early 1900s, when (after disastrous fires in 1895 and 1904) it was sold to the Summers family. They in turn sold it in 1936 and Emral Hall was demolished. However, parts of it were bought and re-erected elsewhere, where they can still be seen, many being reused by Clough Williams-Ellis in building the Town Hall in his Italianate village of Portmeirion, Gwynedd, North Wales. For lots of photos of Emral, see my Emral Photo Gallery.

Emral Hall

PICKHILL HALL, WORTHENBURY

Another branch of the Pulestons, from which I am also descended, acquired the nearby Pickhill_Hall estate in the early 1600s through the marriage of John Puleston of Bradenheath, near Worthenbury to Ermine, daughter and heiress of Robert ap Madoc of Pickhill. The estate was sold in 1801 after the death of the Rev. Phillip Puleston. 

Many other Pulestons lived in various parts of North Wales, including Hafod y Wern, Llai Hall, Llwyn y Cnottiau, Overton, Pwll yr Uwd and the Bers (Upper Berse) near Wrexham,  Pentre Coch, Fron Farm and Plasnewydd  at Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd, Berth at Llanbedr Dyffryn Clwyd, Tremaran, London House and Mount Place at Bala and Bodrenig, at Arenig, near Bala. Photos of many of these are in my main Photo Gallery.

I should be most grateful for any corrections or additional information or photos. You can contact me by e mail by clicking on Contact Form, or you can leave comments on my website by clicking on Guest Book. 

THANKS

I am very grateful for the extensive information supplied to me by Stephen Perkins (especially relating to the Pulestons of Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd) and the late Mrs Sunter Harrison (who published several interesting booklets on the Pulestons and their houses).                                                        

I am also very grateful to Jean Timm at the Osage County Historical Society and Genealogical Research Center in Lyndon, Osage County, Kansas and the terrific staff at the Kansas State Historical Society for all the assistance they gave us in April 2007 when we were there researching my great grandparents, Edward and Jane Puleston, and their daughter, Fanny.

Haydn Puleston Jones                                #GoToTheTopOfThisPage                                       

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All information and photos on this website are Copyright Haydn Puleston Jones 2006-8, except where indicated otherwise.