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Pearsall Surname Project
Number of Pearsalls By Location
Maps by Family
Surname
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
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so that the
Horsley branch was known as Pershall and the Ranton branch as Persall.
Whereas the third, or Kinlet branch, who
supported the side of York,
adhered to the old spelling of Peshall. All
this will be more fully gone into in speaking of the history of the
several branches of the family. It is sufficient at this time to point
out that it was this historical incident which brought about this change
in our surname at this time among those who were connected with the
Horsley and Ranton Branches of the family.
Later, when the family at Horsley became very rich from the Virginia tobacco
trade, it returned to the spelling Peshall, but
this lasted only for the one generation, after which the members of this
branch, who were actually residing at Horsley, returned to the spelling, Pershall. But before the change had been made to Peshall, one of the members of the Horsley family was
engaged in trade in the City of London as a merchant of the Staple and he
had widely departed from the Staffordshire spelling of his family name
and although he also attempted to adopt the spelling of Peshall when he acquired his wealth from the Virginia
tobacco trade, the change could not be made to stick.
The important
fact to be remembered in this connection is that the families at Horsley
and Ranton from the end of the lifetime of Sir
Hugh had begun to call themselves Peer-sail (The Horsley folks
pronouncing it as though it were written Pier-saal,
while the Ranton folks pronounced it as though
it were spelled Pear-sall). The continuation of
the voiceless h made no difference to the family at Horsley as the
cockney English to this day have a strong liking for this much abused and
by them little used letter. When a certain one of the Horsley family
located in London for the transaction of business, his spelling of his
surname received from his neighbors and business associates an entirely
different phonetic value than that to which he had been accustomed in
Staffordshire, for by this time the soft English of Kent had become the
accepted dialect of the metropolis. This Edmond Pershall
thereupon changed the spelling of his surname to Pearsall. Asa merchant of the staple, he was one who dealt in
or exported the so-called small staple commodities of England,
namely, Wool, Wool Eels and Leather as well as the products of these
materials. This trade took him to all parts of England so that he came into
contact with the members of the family of the several lines which traced
their ancestry to the old manor of Peshale in
Staffordshire. He entered into this trade some time about 1552, and from
that date there came about a disposition on the part of these several
families to adopt a common spelling of the family name. It is therefore
easy to see why this desire for harmony in the spelling of the family
name did not also extend to the members of these several branches who
resided in the non-wool sections of England, or whose ancestors having
come before this to London they were not brought into contact with Edmond
Pearsall either in a business or family way. It also happened, no doubt
casually, that all the members of the family who adopted the spelling
Pearsall were of the Ranton branch excepting
Edmond Pearsall and his sons who were of the Horsley branch of the
family.
How uniformly
the members of the Ranton branch, who were
located in the wool growing and wool manufacturing sections, accepted the
new spelling for the designation of their family name, is shown by the
work of Henry Hamics, who in
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