Vol. 2. Forward

FORWARD
Volume 2 of our FEATHERS-TON FINDINGS booklets has now been completed. I am
very grateful to those who responded to volume 1 with their complimentary
remarks. They have helped to engourage the continuance of this series.
Recently, we had the opportunity of attending a Featherston cousin's family
reunion. This was my first meeting with other Featherstons with the exception
of my immediate family. It was fantastic and a great time was had by all.
If you have a Featherston family reunion scheduled next year and would like to
notify others through these pages, please send us your information as soon as
possible.
If you have not yet sent in your Featherston research material, please do so.
Perhaps you have just the item that others have been searching for. Do not
be concerned that we may already have that information as it is much better to
have duplications, than not to have it at all.
Also, please search your local newspapers for obituaries or other items with
reference to our surname. Perhaps, these will be of help to others now or in
years to come.
There is no charge for submitting any information for publication in this
series. A few individuals have sent in their branches, but many others have
not. If you are one of those who have not, let me encourage you to do so. We
can only be of help to each other by sharing.
Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year!
Thank you,
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Vol. 2.  Index

TABLE OF CONTENTS VOLUME 2

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Vol. 2.  Page 1

 FEATHERSTONI ANA
The name, Featherston, with its variants of Fetherstanhalg, Fetherstanhishalu, Fetherstan, Feo er(e)-stan, Ferdestan, Federestan, Fredestan, Ferestane, Fedrestana, etc., comes from the Old English feperstan, 'a tetralith', i.e. a cromleah, which consists of three upright stones and a head-stone. The Old English fe(o)-,o er-, fi/?er. 'four', occurs in several compounds, such as -fete. 'Four-footed', -rfca, 'tetrach'.(1) But for its coat-of-arms the family seems to have gone back to the Anglo-Saxon fe^'er, 'feather': gules on a chevron between three ostrich feathers argent a pellet; for crest, an antelope's head erased argent armed or; for supporters, two ostriches.(2)
There are three places in England that bear the family name. The first is the township of Featherston in the parish of Haltwhistle, Western Division of Tindale ward, county of Northumberland. Featherston castle, which was
repaired and enlarged by its owner in the early years of the nineteenth century, was from an early period the seat of the Featherstonehaigh family.
One of its illustrious members was Timothy, who raised a troop of horse for the king during the civil war, and was knighted under the royal banner at Whitehall. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Worcester, in 1651, and was
afterwards beheaded and his estate sold by parliament to the earl of Carlisle.
There is also the chapelry of Featherstone in that part of the parish of Wolverhampton which is in the Eastern Division of the hundred of Cuttlestone, county of Stafford. It is mentioned by Dugdale under the year 996, and in
Domesday. The third place is Featherstone (All Saints), a parish partly in the Lower Division of the wapentake of Agbrigg and partly in the Upper Division of the wapentake of Osgoldcross, West Riding of the county of York.
It includes the township of that name, 3 1/2 miles west of Pontefract. It too is mentioned in Domesday.(3)
The name, Featherston, seems to belong to Yorkshire, while Featherstonhaigh is identified with Northumberland, but members of the Northumberland group held land in Yorkshire as well. The family is of Saxon origin and was seated at Featherston after the Conquest. That part of the country had been allotted to their ancestor, a Saxon officer, for his gallantry against the Britons. They had large possessions and bore honourable offices in the county of Northumberland. They were sheriffs, deputy-lieutenants, etc., and are registered in the reign of Stephen as gentlemen of coat-armour resident at Fetherstonhaugh Castle. Various deeds and writings show that for some centuries they held several manors and estates near the castle, the castle was held by the family as a member of the barony of Tyndale in the reign of Edward I, and they continued to possess it until the time of Elizabeth. The story is told that their house was formerly situated upon a hill where there were two large stones. Courts of manors were formerly held in the open air, and the place was distinguished by a large stone used by the steward as a table where homage was taken and accounts rendered. It seems probable that the stones in question were used for such purposes and were called feuder- or fether-stones. Where the feudal tenants of the manor were assembled. After the ruin of the moat constructed for defence against the Scots, the family rebuilt the castle in the holme. or valley, under the hill, which in Northumberland is called cont...


 

Vol. 2.  Page 2

haugh — whence Fetherstonhaugh. The family wrote their names 'de Fetherston' and sometimes 'de Fetherstonhaugh'. In the course of time the family has been subdivided into a number of branches, particularly two, of Fetherstonhaugh, and Fetherstonhalge. Tradition has it that an Albany Fetherston married two wives and had a son by each. The elder son inherited the Northumberland estate. The younger son, whose mother was an heiress of a considerable estate in and near Stanhope (Co. Durham), inherited his mother's property. The elder son then added -haugh to his name. and the younger, -halge to his, to preserve a distinction between the two families and their descendants. It should also be noted — and this is not tradition — that the descendants of William de Monte, who flourished in the reign of Stephen and lived at Stanhope, took the name of Fetherstonhalge by royal licence in 48 Edward III.(4)
Featherston of Yorkshire
In the twelfth year of the reign of Henry II (1165-6) WILLIAM de Featherston owed a mark, as recorded in pleas before the justices de Lucy. In 33 Henry II he is listed as a fugitive whose chattels were worth 19 s. 3 d.(5) ROBERT was party in a case before the same justices against one Rannulphus de Wichala in 1191. He is afterwards listed in every year from 1192 through 1198 as a defaulter owing 3s. 4d.(6) Such inauspicious beginnings were not improved by the next member of the family who appears in the records. On 14 January 1244 the sheriff of York received an order to inquire into the holdings of RALPH de Fetherston, deceased. The inquest showed that 'Olive, his daughter, aged 16 1/2 , is understood to be his heir. because he kept a certain woman named Emma for ten years before he married her. and begot of her RICHARD his son, and after their marriage he begot of her the said Olive'. Ralph held in the parish of Fetherston thirty acres of land, a messuage, five acres of meadow, and pasture in demesne, two and three-quarters bovates in villeinage, 49s. 3 l/2d. in rents from freemen, and a pound of pepper and two pounds of cummin. In Chevet town he had a mark of rent of assize, and in Stubbes. 3d.(7) The king granted one Hamo, son of Philip, the hand of Olive, Ralph's heir, on 2 May 1244. (8) In 1260 Roger of Doncaster plead in court that 'terram MAURICI de Fetherstan' eidem Maurico replegiari'. The land had been seized because of Maurice's default before the justices of the King's Bench.(9) Nine years later brother WILLIAM de Featherston was one of the executors of the will of Gervase, the wife of Thomas Ie Ragged, and paid half a mark to bring the will into court before the itinerant justices sitting at Newcastle-upon-Tyne.(10)
On 26 June 1289 ROBERT de Featherston acknowledged a debt of 20s. to Stephen de Houdene.(ll) Robert had two sons, JOHN and RICHARD. On 10 August 1328 John received a pardon for his outlawry in Yorkshire for not appearing before Edward II's courts to answer a plea of trespass at the suit of Robert de Went. (12) On 13 July 1340 John came into the chancery at London and acknowledged a charter he had given to John and Nicholas de Sancto Paulo. He granted them a messuage, five acres of land and lid. rent in Benteley (Co. Yorks.) with all other lands be held in the town and with all the services of Robert, son of Robert de Ouston, and of Constance Edryk.(13) On 22 June 1333 cont...


 

Vol. 2.  Page 3

Richard, the other son of Robert, acknowledged that he owed L16. to the master and brethren of the hospital of St. Leonard, York.(14) At about the same time a HENRY de Featherston was doing good service with the English army invading Scotland. On that account he was pardoned, 22 November 1310, at the instance of the earl of Cornwall for the death of Richard de Baghille.(15) In 1337 a SIMON was a mainpernor for Edmund de Sutton.(16)

Featherstonhaigh of Northumberland

The beginnings of the Featherstonhalgh family were equally shady. In 1204 

I. ELIAS was being prosecuted for breaking the king's peace by robbery, and declined to attend the summons to court. (17) In the same year HUGH (his brother?) had a case in court.(18) A century or more passes before another name of this family appears. By that time its position was on the right side of the law and its members were royal officials. Six persons appear almost at once in the records and five of them, Thomas, Alexander, Peter, William, and Richard, were brothers. Their father was:

II. Thomas, who flourished in 1255/6 and died before 1312. He married Mariota, who was still living in 1336. Thomas, their eldest son, is first mentioned in 1312 and had died before 1342; had had a son, Thomas. Alexander comes to light in 1323 and was still alive forty years later. William appears only once, in 1323, Peter from 1329 to 1334, and Richard from 1338 to 1343.

III. THOMAS first served as a purchasing agent of Edward II. On 21 April 1312 he was commissioned to buy in Northumberland 392 quarters of wheat and 420 quarters of malt. The victuals were for the use of the king during his stay at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. (19) On 15 September 1320 Thomas was in the chancery at Westminster witnessing the enrolment of a deed.(20) Two years later he stood as surety for Robert de Angerton, of Newcastle, who was sending ships south for corn. He undertook to see that Robert wuld not convey the corn to places other than York and Newcastle and that he would  not communicate with the Scots or Flemish.(21) Thomas's services were rewarded by a grant from the king on 30 July 1323. He and his brother Alexander, received the land in Sedbergh in Lonsdale (co. Yorks.) forfeited by the rebel, Andrew de Harcla.(22) Writs were addressed to Thomas in 1324 and 1326-8 as keeper of the king's peels of Highhead (co. Cumberland) and Staworth (co. Northumberland). Thomas also had the keeping for life of the peel of Wark in Tyndale (co. Northumberland). He accounted for those lands to the wardrobe, which had temporarily replaced the exchequer as the real controller of finance.(23) In 1326 he had been appointed 'to array all the fencible men of the liberties of Hexham (co. Northumberland), Ward in Tyndale. the barony of Tyndale and the moor of Alderston, to assess them to arms and lead them at the king's will or elsewhere as shall seem to be the same Thomas to be most to the king's advantage, with power to punish any found rebellious in this behalf'.(24) Two years later he restored to the abbot of Jedburgh (co. Roxburgh) out of his custody the lands and possessions which had been seized by Edward II because of the war against Scotland.(25) Thomas also served on inquisitions post mortem in 1328 and 1329.(26) At his death, c. 1342, his grant of de Harcla's lands in Yorkshire passed to Richard de Kardoill.(27)  cont...


 

Vol. 2.  Page 4

IV. THOMAS the younger was commissioned with his father in 1328 to cause the truce with Scotland to be observed in Northumberland and the marches.(28) In 1329, together with his uncle, Peter, he received a general pardon from the king for aid 'in the late rebellion', and in 1331 he went with Anthony de Lucy to Ireland.(29) Thomas married Margaret, who was living in 1374, and died without heirs.
This line continued through his uncle.

III. ALEXANDER, who died c. 1365. In 1323 Alexander and his brother.

III. WILLIAM, received for life the lands of the rebel de Harcla. which had been originally given to Alexander and his brother, Thomas.(30) Eight years later the king appointed Alexander to the custody of Limerick Castle, in Ireland, and to the office of constable of Dublin Castle.(31) In 1332 Alexander drew wages for a mission from Ireland to England. The justiciar of Ireland, Anthony de Lucy, and the chancellor and treasurer there had sent him to report to the king on the state of the country.(32) In 1347 Alexander was back in England and serving on a commission to inquire into the devastation by the Scots of the de Lucy lands in Northumberland.(33) Several writs were addressed to him as collector of customs in 1352-4, 1356, 1358 to levy a fifteenth and tenth and 40s. knight's fee in the same county.(34) By 1355 his services to the crown gained him exemption from being put on assizes, juries, or recognitions, and from appointment as mayor, sheriff, eschaetor, coroner, bailiff, or other minister of the king without his consent.(35) Alexander held of the de Lucy family in Northumberland the manor of Featherstonhaigh by homage and service of 20s. 7d. yearly, and by suit of the court of Langley.(36)

III. PETER, Alexander's brother, held of the same family a moiety of the manor of(3) Whitwham by 2d. to cornage, and 3s. 4d. to free ferm. The manor descended to Peter's son,

IV. THOMAS, and was held freely by him by homage and service of 3s. 4d. yearly, and(4) by suit of court.(37)

III. RICHARD, fifth son of Thomas and Mariota, was a merchant who lent money to the king.(38) There remain two persons whose places in the family pedigree are not clear. One is JOHN, who died in 1322 served as mainpernor for Sir Walter de Kirkebride.(39) He is perhaps the same John who in 1360 received a pardon as a follower of Henry of Lancaster.(40) The other is ROBERT, who was ordered to collect a clerical subsidy in Durham in 1372.(41) These notes, based on the printed sources, follow the history of the family to the accession of Richard II (1377). The pedigree after that date, complete in some lines to the nineteenth century, is shown in the accompanying tables. cont...