Poultney Family History
This page contains some of the early
history of the Poultney family in England and the story of the
move of the immediate family's ancestors to South Africa in 1820. We welcome input from fellow genealogists.
POULTNEY FAMILY TREE
POULTNEY FAMILY COAT OF
ARMS
WILLIAM AND DORA (nee ORTLEPP) POULTNEY - a summary of their lives
POULTNEY FAMILY - EARLY ENGLISH
HISTORY
THE NAME
The etymology has had many changes over the centuries. The
name of the area where the family originally came from was termed
Pulta Heith prior to the Doomsday Book listing. Then based on a
specific island in the Swift River the name of the people became
de Pultan-eye which in turn over the centuries, because of poor
pronunciation and spelling, varied through Pulteneye, Pulteney,
Poulteney and the most common current spelling, since about 1750,
to Poultney. Pountney was also a variation.
MISTERTON, LEICESTERSHIRE
Situation - Ordinance Survey Map 2.5 inch sheet SP 58
Lutterworth - travel 13 miles South of Leicester City on the M1,
take left ramp towards Husbands Bosworth. 100 metres on take left
turn and 500 metres on from there a church will come in sight on
the left, behind a stone wall.
Extracts from a book on Leicestershire - title etc unknown:
" Misterton: this site is now little more than a church and
a hall, but was once a considerable village along the old road
which runs through the park, the modern road representing a later
diversion. The church (St Leonard) is mainly a l4th-century
building, with good decorated window tracery. But the site is an
ancient one, as the name means "minster"-tun i.e. the
site of an early monasterium or mother-church for a large area
around. There are some good bench-ends of Henry VIII's time, and
monuments to the POULTENEYS (Sir Michael,1567, and John, l637).
They derived from the now "lost village" of POULTNEY,
1.5 miles north-east of Misterton, the site being represented by
the Great Poultney Farm, close to the infant river Swift. The
township was probably deserted and converted to cattle and sheep
pastures before 1500, and the Poulteneys took: up their residence
in the hall in Misterton, which is described in the 1846
Directory as "an ancient mansion". In the small park
were some lofty trees, which were said to have been standing in
the time of Richard III, but on what authority I do not know. The
Poulteneys died out in Misterton in 1672.
Sir John de Poulteney (1280-1349) was one of this family, a
notable Lord Mayor of London in the 1300s who became wealthy
enough to advance money to King Edward III. The city parish of St
Lawrence Pountney takes its second name from him. Another
descendant of this old Leicestershire family was Sir William
Pulteney, Earl of Bath (1684-1764) the statesman after whom the
Pulteney Bridge in Bath is
named."
also:
"Kimcote: the church (All Saints) is partly late l3th
century, partly early l4th. Font dated 1654. Free school built
1844. Great Poultney Farm, about 1 mile south-south-west marks
the site of the deserted village of Poultney, depopulated in the
late 15th century. It can be reached by a footpath beginning near
the church. "
LONDON
A. Westminster Abbey:
1. Monument to William Pulteney, Earl of Bath, situated in a
chapel on left of main entrance.
2. Plaque to Sir John de Poulteney, four times Mayor of London,
in north-east corner.
B. St Lawrence Pountney Church: destroyed in the Fire of London
but the site has been retained as a smallish grassed square, with
a plaque telling the story. Situated in Pountney Lane in the area
between Cameron Street and Upper Thames Street and between Cannon
Street Station and London Bridge Station; only a couple of blocks
from The Monument, where the great fire started.
C. Pulteney College: situated in the area of new Scotland Yard
and named after the Earl of Bath.
D. Cold Harbour: although destroyed many, many years ago this was
the town house built by Sir John and situated on the north bank
of the River Thames approximately where Tower stairs now are;
between Tower Bridge and Customs House. Ultimately he sold this
house to the Black Prince who lived in it for quite a long time.
E. 14 Primrose Street: this address no longer exists as it is a
road bridge over the rail tracks north of Liverpool St Station.
Our settler ancestor - James Augustus - had his tailoring
business there until the end of 1819.
SCOTLAND - Wick in the north-east corner of Scotland has a
Pultney Distillery. As yet no details available as to how it got
its name.
THE POULTNEY SETTLERS OF 1820- extracted
from "The Story of the British Settlers of 1820 in South
Africa" by H.E. Hockley.
JAMES AUGUSTUS POULTNEY and his wife ANN (nee Smith), aged 28
and 21 respectively, with their baby daughter, ANN, of four
months, sailed on the ship "Ocean" from London in
December 1819 or early January 1820. The River Thames had been
frozen over for some weeks, so that the ships had been ice-bound.
All the ships experienced very bad weather - some were nearly
shipwrecked soon after leaving harbour. Several ships, including
the Ocean, had to put in to Portsmouth for shelter. During the
storm the Ocean broke from her moorings and collided with the
"Northampton", but without any serious consequences.
After the ships had passed through the Bay of Biscay the weather
improved.
The party on the Ocean under the leadership of Dr N. Morgan
numbered 41 - this was the Poultneys' group. There were three
other parties on board - the total number of settlers being 206.
During the voyage, the Poultneys' ship called at Porto Praya, one
of the Cape Verde Islands. Whilst lying at her anchorage there,
in the dead of night, her passengers were rudely awakened by the
booming of a cannon, followed by the tearing noise of the cannon
ball through the rigging. One of the shore batteries had opened
fire - this from a supposedly friendly port. While the scared
passengers were wondering what was happening, a second discharge
was heard, and this time the ball hit the ship, smashing through
the side and entering a store-room just below one of the cabins.
Excitement and consternation were intense. A third ball was fired
and this one fell short, hissing as it entered the sea as if it
were a red-hot shot. It turned out later that the shore batteries
were "trigger happy" and had thought that the Ocean or
another settler ship were the same as had fired on the port a few
weeks previously. Fortunately the mistake was discovered before
the Ocean was destroyed.
The ships had an uneventful voyage after this ! It took until 9th
Apri1 1820 before the first ship dropped anchor in Algoa Bay -
the last arrived late in June.
One of the passengers on the Poultneys' ship was Mr Bishop
Burnett, a retired Royal Navy Lieutenant, who later achieved much
notoriety by horse-whipping an army surgeon near Grahamstown.
Lengthy legal proceedings resulted in the British 8overnment to
alter its constitutional policy in the Cape.
The Morgan (Poultney) party settled on a plot of land about 4
square miles in area, situated about 7 miles East of Grahamstown,
to the right of the present national road as one travels from
Grahamstown to Peddie.