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THE MOTIVE
The
Motive which induced certain only distantly related members of our family
to adopt the common spelling of Pearsall for their surname is too long a
story to be condensed into a concrete statement. It will be found to be
duly explained in its proper place in this history.
While
this family name of Pearsall includes many branches that did live and
some of which now live in England,
yet our primary interest is in those branches, having this spelling of
Pearsall, who came to America.
The inducement which impelled one's ancestor to leave his home-land and come to America
is always an interesting subject of inquiry. The records disclose that
our ancestor came for trade in which his father, Edmond Pearsall, held the
King's Patent granting a monopoly of the Tobacco trade to him and his
associates.
The
history of America
shows that emigrants of other families came to found churches to their
own liking; religious liberty they called it. To the descendants of such
we commend the story of the founding of the First Presbyterian Church of
Hempstead, which discloses that our ancestors were also God-fearing and
God-serving men and women.
History
also shows that others, mostly of the gentry of England, came to acquire
lands because, under the feudal system, possession of land was the basis
of the whole social fabric, and upon this foundation these emigrants
expected to acquire rank and title at home. To the descendants of such we
commend a reading of the many
thousands of deeds herein abstracted, which disclose that our ancestors were not only
owners of large tracts of land, but that some of the lines of
their descendants can show more than three centuries of unbroken landed
possession.
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