Introduction There have been many queries concerning Dalton Coats of Arms that we will attempt to answer in this and successive articles. Our DGS Historian, Dr. Lucy J. Slater of Cambridge, England has written a short history that has been previously printed but worth repeating as an introduction to the series that begins in this issue. In the "General Armory, English, Scotland, Ireland and Wales" by Sir Bernard Burke, CB US, Ulster Kings of Arms, 1967, there are 24 Dalton Coats of Arms listed in abbreviated Latin. Heraldry language. Dr.Slater has transcribed them and in the course of the next few months the more important ones will be printed accompanied by information on the family. Extensive information on many of the lines has been published in the Journals of the Dalton Genealogical Society. For further information, contact Dr. Slater: e-mail, LJSWardle@aol.com The Dalton Coat of Arms by Dr. Lucy Joan Slater There are many variants of the Dalton Coat of Arms which have been used by various branches of the Dalton family. One of these you can see at the head of this newsletter. A Coat of Arms came into use in the days when men could not read but had to identify their leader when even his face was fully covered in armour. At first, it was a simple pattern put on his shield. As time went on, these patterns became more formalised and were recorded by men called Heralds to make sure that there was no mistake in the use of such shields. Imagine the chaos which could result in two leaders on different sides in the battle, using the same coat of arms! The Heralds formalised these patterns, naming and recording the parts of the design and the colours used. Our Coat of Arms has two parts, a Shield and a Crest. The earliest recorded Dalton shield was a blue painted shield with a
silver lion standing on its hind legs with its claws out ready to attack
you. This is described in the language of Heraldry as “A shield
azure propre with a lion argent rampant guardant”. Such a shield
was carried in the battle of Borroughbridge in 1322 by Sir Robert Dalton
of Pickering Castle, Yorkshire and later at the battle of Crecy. (See
DGSJ Vol. 5 p. 22 and Joseph Foster’s Feudal Coats of Arms, p. 62.) In the reign of Henry VIII, (see The Ancestor, Vol. XI, No. 17) we find that “Dalton beareth as his crest, a dragon vert, langued geules or, gourged ermine”. This means a green dragon’s head, with open golden wings and a coller of ermine”. Legend has it that Sir Richard Dalton of Byspam, who was a Crusader in 1187, killed a Saracen in the Holy Land, and so he took the green griffin as his crest. Our griffin is sometimes called a dragon or a wyvern. A man’s sons had to have shields which were similar to their father’s but with slight differences to show which son was carrying the shield. Thus the concept of differencing came into use. The main Dalton difference was gold crosslets on the shield, for the eldest son. This pattern is used on our Dalton Society shield, and shows that the man who founded the Lancashire branch of the Dalton family was probably the eldest son of Sir Robert of Pickering. Another difference was to have groups of three golden feathers in place of the crosslets. This form of the shield was used by the Irish branch of the family. Our Society was granted the right to use this shield, by the Royal College of Arms (See DGSJ Vol. 1, p.5, & Vol. 5, p.20.) as our main aim in the first place was to study all descendants of the Lancashire branch of the family. Lancaster Transcriptions by Dr. Lucy J. Slater 1. Dalton, County Lancaster Editor's note: In July 2002 "Daltons in History", a second installment of Dalton Coats of Arms will be printed. If you are aware of a source of coloured prints of Dalton Coats of Arms, please be in touch so that they may accompany the transcriptions. More information on Thurnham Daltons is contained in the following extracts of Thurnham Recusants. |
Introduction DGS Archivist, Michael Cayley, has located a unique set of Dalton records that were excerpted by the Catholic Record Society in England. They contain, baptisms, marriages, burials, lists of convicted recusants (non-conformists), prisoners, seminarians and the like. Selected from the extracts are entries pertaining to the Catholic family of Daltons in Thurnham and in the surrounding Lancaster/Lancashire area. It is a follow-on from the preceding article on Dalton Coats of Arms. Other selections from the records will follow in successive issues. The Thurnham family of Daltons is the subject of an entire book, "The Dalton Book" and is available from the DGS. The ancestry of this line has also been charted and many articles about the family have appeared in the DGS Journals. Catholic Record Society: Miscellanea 5 Catholic Record Society: Miscellanea 8 Catholic Record Society: Lancashire Registers
1 Catholic Record Society: Recusants - Exchequer
Roll 1592-3 Catholic Record Society: Lancashire Registers
4 Catholic Record Society: Douay Diary 1715-1778 Catholic Record Society: Lancashire Registers
6 Catholic Record Society, Recusant Roll 2, 1593-4 Catholic Record Society, St Omers and Bruges
Colleges 1593-1773 Catholic Record Society, recusants 1581-92 Catholic Record Society, The Letters of Dr John
Lingard to Mrs Thomas Lomax 1835-51 Catholic Record Society, Biographical Dictionary
of English Members and Major Benefactors of the Institute of the Blessed
Virgin Mary 1667-2000 Editor's Note: The above Dalton information and virtually all that is printed in "Daltons in History" cannot be found elsewhere on the web. If you enjoy reading and learning about Dalton history why not join the DGS and support the efforts of our volunteers who make this possible? For more information, click the "Entitlements and Membership" link. |
from Millicent V. Craig About This Report Dalton Virginians in 1880 Including wives, the 1880 Census shows that an additional 165 Virginia born Daltons migrated to other states. (This does not include Dalton children who were born at the new locations). Ohio accounted for 65 or 40% of the VA migrants; Tennessee 33 or 20%; West Virginia 19 or 11%; and 10 each went to Colorado, Kentucky and Missouri. Unless there was a wave of newcomers in the 1700's it
is most likely that the size of this Dalton Innovative Given Names Virginia Twins Census data does not take into account those situations where one or both twins died at birth or at an early age. This was a common occurence. Birth or baptismal data offers a more accurate reading and therefore the count could be higher than indicated. (The 1850 Census data in the file did not yield any information on twins). Printed below are four sets of twins from the 1880 Census. Someone may recognize a genetic link between the sets or to his/her line. 1880 Census of Virginia Recent research findings on twinning has added a new dimension to the phenomenon. Socio-cultural factors are now believed to play an important role. Fertility drugs will also upset the traditional means of genetic identification in the future and present another challenge to the genealogist. |
extracted by DGS member, K. T. Mapstone This extraction completes the Naturalizations for Cook County, Illinois. A third section of Naturalizations will be printed in the July 2002 issue of "Daltons in History" and will cover several remaining Counties. Our thanks is extended to K. T. Mapstone. Cook County, continued Editor's Note. This data will be eventually uploaded to the permanent Illinois file in the DALTON DATA BANK. |