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History and Genealogy of the Pearsall Family in England and America:

 

Volume I

 

Front Cover

Inside Front Cover

The Motive

Thanks

Illustrations

Contents

 

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Appendix I

 

Volume II

 

Volume III

 

 

 

 

 

 

the shiel or shelter of King Peada, later corrupted into Peshale to distinguish it from the castle of his brother, King Wulfhere. The latter built himself a castle or manor within two miles of Peshale and later in 670 he founded and erected the priory of Stone still a mile further east, and evidently here he was also only carrying out the primary intentions of King Peada. The remains of King Wulfhere's castle were still visible as late as 1542. This Byri (Bowery) Hall stood on a rock by a brookside, whence appeareth, says John Leland, father of British topographers, in 1542 great dykes and squared stones. It is a mile from Stone towards the Marches. [Counties of England, by P. H. Ditchfield, vol. 1, page 230.] All of which is still further confirmed by Walter Chetwynd in his history of Pirehill Hundred in Stafford, wherein he says-Within Darlaston on the top of a rising ground the marks of some fortifications are yet visible. The tradition is that here was once the seat of Wulfere, King of Mercia, which, beside some other authorities, has this to confirm it, that Rob. de Suggenhull, and Petronilla his wife gave a message and certain lands to the Priory of Stone, lying within Darlaston and adjoining to the hill called "Wulferecestre." Darlaston is in the parish of Stone, and Hundred of Pirehill. [Hist. Coll. of Staff. vol. 12, page 100.]

See also Place Names of Cumberland by Walter John Sedgefield, Professor of English Language in the University of Manchester, England, 1915, where it is shown that the same meaning of temporary shelter occurs in the Norman word Skjol, a shelter cave; in dialect it occurs in Shiel, Sheil, and shield which means a hut, shed, cottage, a temporary shelter erected for the use of a shepherd during the summer months. A peculiarity of this word is that it seems to have its meaning modified by association. In connection with a fisherman it is a hut, as to a farmer, it is a shed, as to a shepherd, it is a tent, but always it is a temporary shelter. It is easy to see therefore that the meaning of the last element in Peshale is governed by the value of the first or other element, with which it is associated in word building. With this thought in mind, it is easy to make an accurate definition of the word Peshale, namely King Peada's shelter.

The second element shale is pronounced as though it were written sail. It should have been pointed out, in stating the phonetic equivalent of the first element, that Staffordshire-Shropshire is the land of Cockney English. The place where the old clipt dialect with its broad drawl has survived even to the present day. It seems almost unnecessary to state that in this dialect the letter h is valueless. These Shropshire folk knew their defect and were willing to joke about it. The learned Dr. Skeat, a great English lexicographer, who did not use the sound of a in his own name, in a letter to Dr. Murray of Oxford, a well known and learned Shropshire man, said:

 

And you laugh ha! ha! defying fate

As you tackle the terrible aspirate;

The H that appals the cockney crew,

Lancashire, Essex, and Shropshire too.

 

To which Dr. Murray replied:

 

Professor S. Keat will have his fling,

And say what he likes about any thing;

But "poor letter H" in its real state,

 

 

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