Volume 1 — LETTER FROM REV. JOHN WALROND OF OTTERY, ENG., TO REV. WILLIAM WALDRON, MINISTER OF BOSTON, AND BROTHER OF SECRETARY WALDRON.
Reading edition
Ottery, March 8, 1725-6. "Rev. and dear Sir,
It was a very pleasant surprise to me to receive a Letter from you, who no doubt are of the same Name and Family with myself, tho' a letter in it be transposed, and who by Dr. Mather's Character of you, are not the least in your Father's House.
I have made some Enquiry about the Somersetshire Branch of our Family, from whence you are descended, but cannot exactly determine, tho' I am apt to think it must be from one of those two Gentlemen, of which, one was Walrond, of Illbrewers who had about five hundred Pounds pr. Annum or more, and the other Walrond of Saye, of about the same Value, and I think both of them Justices of the Peace, in that County, one of them I am sure was so, viz., the former; both of them degenerated into looseness of Living in Charles 2ds Reign, and both ruined their Estates and dyed poor, above twenty years since. Walrond of Illbrewers was a great persecutor of the Dissenters, but in the conclusion wanted bread.
There is an honest family of about a hundred Pounds pr. annum, still living at Wellington, in Somerset, very excellent Men, great supports of Religion, and one of the Brothers abt your Age, a very good young Minister, living now in Dorsetshire.
The Head of all our Family still remains in a good Estate, about a thousand Pounds pr. Annum, from whom I am the second Generation. The seat is called Bradfield in Devon.
It was granted by the Crown, about six hundred years since, to one Richard Walerand, and has continued in the Family to this Day; The last Gentleman that dyed was a very pious good Man, about eighty years of Age and an excellent Magistrate in his Country, that could at any time lead three hundred Freeholders, to the Election of a Shire Knight; but his son is degenerate and very wicked: I conversed much with the old Gentleman, but this is no Friend to my Profession.
Another Branch sprung from Bradfield House in this county (beside those two families in Somerset before mentioned) which is seated at Bovey, in the East of Devon, which Branch sprang from its Root about 340 years since, and now inherits at least, a thousand Pounds per Annum; This also has degenerated and become like other Gentlemen in England: For Religion indeed, is almost quite gone, out of the Familys of the Gentry, by Means of a loose and licentious Clergy.
I never could find any of our Name, in all England, but in the Western Counties, and from thence, a Family went, as Merchants to Barbadoes, grew rich, and was in the Government there; and the last Gentleman a Batchelor seated himself at Greenwich near London, was morally honest and very charitable, but having a great loss in the South Sea, of almost all his Money could not bear it, but shot himself in the Head.
Our Coat of Arms, is three Bulls Heads, as you'l see by my seal on this Letter, But Stemata quid faciunt?
I find our Name in Skinner's Etymologicon Linguæ Anglicanæ; toward the end of which Book, in his Onomastichon, he has the word Walarand, olim Praenomen nunc Cognomen ab Anglo Sax Walpian, volvere, et Rand, Scutum, volvere scutum, i. c., qui Clypeum huc illuc circumagit. Waldron autem cognomen contractum est a Walarand. I have transcribed what he says lest the Book should not be common with you. I wish you had let me know into what Family your Grandfather married, for that might perhaps have given Light into the Enquiry; however I will examine farther, and take the first opportunity to inform you, as I can get Intelligence; but I know of no male Posterity left of the two Somersetshire Familys that I mentioned above.
I am much pleased with your Correspondence, and shall at any time be obliged by Letters from you, * * * send, by a worthy good Man, Capt. * * * who carries this (as I hope he will) from the * * * Exeter to Boston. As to any Ecclesiastical Informations I must refer you to Dr. Mather's Letter which encloses this. May the Lord of the Harvest prosper you and make you a burning and a shining Light. You and I are of one Family, Faith and Profession. Let us particularly pray for each other, tho' we should never see each others face on Earth. Oh that the God of all Grace, may excite us both, to work the Works, of him that sent us while it is Day, that we may have a comfortable Requiem, from our Labors at last, and be accepted, when our Lord shall come, with which I conclude.
Dear Sir, Your affect: Kinsman and Serv't, "To the Rev. Mr. William Waldron, John Walrond." Minister in Boston."
Note. Where blanks occur in the last part of the letter, the words were worn out in the original.
FORM OF A FAMILY REGISTER.
Parents. Children.
JAMES. HANNAH. COTTON WARD. SALLY. POLLY. HANNAH. JUDITH. RACHEL. THEODATE. SIMON. DEBORAH. BETSY. JAMES. NOAH W.
1755 B. 14 Nov.
1763 8 yrs. old B. 31 Oct.
1783 28 20 B. 13 July.
1785 30 22 2 B. 7 Aug.
1787 32 24 4 2 B. 19 June.
1789 34 26 6 4 2 B. 12 Mar.
1791 36 28 8 6 4 2 B. 12 Mar.
1793 38 30 10 8 6 4 2 B. 23 June.
1795 40 32 12 10 8 6 4 2 B. 20 June.
1797 42 34 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 B. 6 Mar.
1799 44 36 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 B. 22 Mar.
1802 47 39 19 M. 4 Fb. 17 15 13 11 9 7 5 3 B. 22 July.
1805 50 42 22 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 3 B. 29 June.
1809 54 46 26 24 22 20 18 16 14 12 10 7 4 B. 28 July.
1834 D. 4 Feb. 71 51 49 47 45 43 41 39 37 35 32 29 25
1847 84 64 62 60 58 56 54 52 50 48 42 38
A Family Record on this plan may be extended so as to include two, three, or more families, and contain all the births, marriages and deaths which have happened, up to the date of its formation. The figures in the first column denote the year of birth, marriage, or death; the other columns show the ages of every individual at the time of any birth, marriage, or death, of every other individual comprehended within the limits of the Table.