William Alston

Notes:

William Alston, also of Newton, who was a prosperous landowner, resident upon and cultivating his own estate which was of respectable dimensions.

There is some doubt as to the number of times William was married. In the pedigree registered by one of his great great grandsons, William Alston of Odell at the Heralds Visitation of Bedfordshire in 1634 his wife is said to have been (Ann), the daughter of (Thomas) Simonds, and her arms are given as "Azure a chevron inter 3 trefoiles slipped d'or") The inclusion of the Christian names within brackets indicates some uncertainty about them, and that about the name Ann is strengthened by the patriarchs mention in his will of his "wyfe Elizabethe" without any reference to a previous marriage. It is not unusual for a trifling vagueness to exist about great great grandparents surnames, to say nothing of their Christian names, and it may not have occured to the Odell family to verify their pedigree by reference to their ancestor's will, even if facilities for doing so were then allowed. On consideration I have decided to regard Ann as a misnomer, and William to have had only one wife-Elizabeth Simonds. This view is supported by Elizabeth's will, to which her son Edward was executor.

William Alston died in the winter of 1563-4, his burial being recorded in the Newton registers as having taken place on the 30th January. Husband and wife were not long divided by death, for although no entry of her burial has been found, her will in which she describes herself as widow is dated 14th May, 1564-5, and was proved on the 30th of the following month (June), in the Archdeaconry of Sudbury. William Alston's will is dated 18th October, 1563, being made probably at the beginning of the illness which terminated fatally.

It was proved on the 23rd October, 1567, in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, and is notable as being the earliest Alston will among the testamentary archives of that Court now in the safe keeping of Somerset House.

The will begins with the usual pious formulary of the commendation of the testators soul to God and his "bodye to therthe" accompanied by the bequest of certain benefactions to be bestowed "amongeste the poore" at his funeral. Then follow the various dispositions of his estate among his wife and children. He had issue three sons and two daughters, of whom at least two sons and the daughters were living at his decease.

Source: Cresswell, Lionel (1905) Stemmata Alstoniana, Table 1.

Family/Spouse: Unknown. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Edward Alston was born in 1507 in Saxham Hall, County Newton, Suffolk, England; died about 1591 in Polstead, Suffolk, England.

Notes:

John Alston is the most remote Alston ancestor in the direct connected line. He is descended from William Alston of Stisted in Essex.
This is a family of great antiquity and is said to be of Saxon extraction. We find them mentioned as early as Edward the First's reign, When William Alston of Sisted, in Essex, did grant and confirm to John de Carpenter of Naylinghurst, so much of his better land in Sisted, except his mansion house there.
Saxham Hall, in Newton, was anciently the seat of the Alstons for many hundred years. In Edward the Third's time, Hugh Alston bore for arms, azure, ten stars, or 4,3,2,1, which was long before coat armour was granted by patent. The same Coat of Arms is used by the American families.

The Alstons purchased "Odell" from the Chetwoods in 1640. Castle Odell commanded a delightful prospect overlooking the Ouse River, whose beautiful meanderings are remarkably striking. Between it's curves on the north rises a wide extended hill covered with the noblest wood in this country, containing more than three hundred acres, and known by the name of "Odell Great Woods".

Alstons through the Temple lines, are traced without an unbroken link through Alfred the Great to Harderick, the first known Saxon King, B.C. 90.

The Alston Family can claim a rich heritage with very marked characteristics. In personal appearance they were very tall, erect, muscular, with florid complexion, blue eyes, and brown or flaxen hair. they held much wealth, though not given to money making as a business, and have but seldom been paderers for political preferment, or sought public honors. Rather, they have acted the part of wealthy country gentlemen who lived well, bestowed upon their families all the pleasure and luxuries which circumstances could afford, and dispensing hospitality with a liberal hand. Strong in their attachments and unyielding in their antagonisms. They have ever been ready to make common cause with a friend, defend injured innocence, befriend the weak, or fight against whatever they conceived to be injustice, wrong or oppression, and as masters were kind and considerate to their servants. Their own conduct being open and above board, they held in abhorrence all sham or pretence of every kind, or anything that savored of dishonesty or meanness, preferring death to dishonor. Their women, while always proud of their ancestral lineage, were gentle in their homelife, unfaltering in their devotion, true and faithful in all that goes to make up the sum of domestic and social endearment and happiness, cherishing virtue as the crowning jewel of womanhood.

From Kimber and Johnson, Baronetage of England, 1771, Vol. I, p.457. as quoted in THE ALSTON FAMILY, p. 11. After some descents from the above, said William Alston, of Stisted, the linealdescendant of this family was John Alston, of Newton, in Suffolk. He was the father of William, who, by Ann the daughterof Thomas Symons, had issue.

***
John Alston of Newton in Suffolk the most remote ancestor in the direct connected line. But of him there is little known except that he is stated to have been descended from the above-mentioned William, of Stisted, in Essex. Investigation has brought to light several Alstons living in the neighbourhood of Newton and Sudbury as contemporaries of Job?, so that it will not be rash to assume that the migration from Stisted occurred some while anterior, and that the family had ramified around Its new settlement. Probably too its position had become established and assured, for John was father of William

Source; Cresswell, Lionel (1905) Stemmata Alstoniana, Table1.