Ancient Lineages in Wales & England

Do you follow the lines of the more ancient Eyton/Eaton, Eton families (prior to 1600)? If so, I would love to start a discussion and share information. Here is a conclusory comment I wrote several years ago which takes my position -- anyone else want to play?

Criggion: Home of Sir Philip Eyton of Shropshire

"We may never find the ultimate smoking gun that points absolutely in the direction of our contentions, however, from a geographic standpoint, we are looking at an area of less than 50 miles distance between Alburbury and Cresswell and little more than 20 miles between Alburbury and Brosely. Within their parameters are at the very least 3 towns or villages named Eyton, and for the existence of 3 major families named de Eyton/Eaton to have lived within this region for centuries, the obvious possibility of kinship must exist. As Alan Garner once told us, there is no reason to assume that any family of consequence would allow a non-aligned family to use same or similar name without consequence. That they are connected to our progenitor, Robert de Eyton, is indicated by a preponderance of evidence of future generations and property holdings. That the Eytons/Eatons were connected to the FitzWarins, Peverels, FitzAlans, and Pantulf families and each in turn to the other is most emphatically indicated through marriage and property holdings yet again. The evidence now seems overwhelmingly to indicate that indeed our Robert de Eyton inherited his land holdings not only from William Pantulf, but from one of the descendants of Waryn the Bald, providing us with a heritage of Welsh nobility and the Dukes of Brittany. That descendants of Robert de Eyton lived in Staffordshire as well as Shropshire and have now been proven to be connected to the descendant families of Warin de Metz in both Broseley and Alberbury and part of the larger family of Peverels of Powys, we have only to conclude their kinship. That evidence from Bangor Monachorum indicates these Welsh families were part of the Wrexham, Ellesmere, Cheshire, Shropshire Eyton groups is without a doubt from coats of arms and property holdings. That they were and are family is now obvious. As records for that time and place will never indicate to anyone’s satisfaction exactly who married who or provide us with an additional register of children for the subsequent marriages to provide a better understanding of the scope of these families, we must, therefore, be pragmatic and look more broadly at the inheritance of land and coats of arms maintained by these families and note their various similarities, but if it looks like a rose and smells like a rose . . ."

Barbara Fitzsenry
VP/Web Editor/Web Master
The Eaton Families Association
www.eatongenealogy.com