Place:Dunston, Staffordshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Dunston is a small village in England lying on the west side of the A449 trunk road about 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Stafford, close to Junction 13 of the M6 motorway. It lies at roughly 300 feet (98 m) above sea level.

History

Dunston was formerly part of the ancient parish of Penkridge. In the Middle Ages it formed a member of the manor of Penkridge and at Domesday in 1086 this was a royal manor. However, by 1166, Robert de Stafford was recognised as lord and Hervey de Stretton was his tenant at Dunston, although the de Staffords retained land at Dunston at least until the 16th century.[2] The lordship and the bulk of the land descended in the de Stretton family for several generations but, by 1285, they were renting most of their land to the Pickstock family, and in 1316 John Pickstock was named as lord of Dunston. The Pickstocks's were actually business people, burgesses of the county town of Stafford. The lordship passed through their hands for several generations, uninterrupted even by the Black Death, until John Pickstock granted most of his lands to members of the Derrington family in 1437. They held it for more than two centuries and sold it to Thomas Adshed in 1638. After only a decade it returned to the Pickstocks, as one Henry Pickstock bought the estate.

The history of the remainder of Dunston, retained by the de Staffords, is complex. A considerable part passed by inheritance to Greville Verney, 7th Baron Willoughby de Broke in 1634 and stayed with his descendants until the 20th century. Other lands were being rented in the early 15th century by Sir Fulke Pembrugge, who became the owner of Tong Castle. In 1577 Thomas Fowke, a London businessman and Merchant of the Staple, bought what was now described as the Manor of Dunston from Edward Stafford, 3rd Baron Stafford. This he later divided in two with John Barbour, another businessman. After Fowkes's death, his share was sold by his son to William Anson, a City lawyer. The Ansons held land at Dunston as they rose up the social ladder. George Anson, a prominent Whig politician, was able to buy the other half of the manor. George's son became Viscount Anson in 1806 and his grandson the first Earl of Lichfield in 1831.

A small portion of the Pickstock lands was rented by the Trumwyn family in the 14th century. This land ultimately passed in the late 16th century into the hands of John Cowper, who sold it to the Ansons in 1607, including a house called the Hall of Dunston. The Ansons leased the property and by the mid-19th century it was the home of the Perry family, from whom it passed to the Thorneycrofts.

Dunston was formally constituted a civil parish separate from Penkridge in 1866. Part of Penkridge was added to the civil parish of Dunston under the Staffordshire Review Order of 1934, increasing the land area from 1,448 acres (5.86 km2) to 1,752 acres (7.09 km2). In 1680, there were 20 houses in Dunston, and in 1817 44 houses, with a population of 214. The population in 1951 was 295. In the next decade, however, the population rose by more than a third to 427.

Staffordshire Research Tips

Reminder: Staffordshire today covers a much smaller area than formerly. The West Midlands now governs the southeastern corner of pre-1974 Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, although ceremonially still part of Staffordshire, is a unitary authority covering a large well-populated part of the north of the county.

• Ordnance Survey Maps of England and Wales: Staffordshire 1931 illustrates the parish boundaries of Staffordshire when rural districts were still in existence and before the West Midlands came into being. The map blows up to show all the parishes and many of the small villages and hamlets. Maps in this series are now downloadable for personal use. Between 1894 and 1934 a number of administrative changes to boundaries occurred and therefore The Staffordshire Ordnance Survey Map of 1900 is also useful.
• British History Online has a collection of local maps from the Ordnance Survey 1883-1893. Rural areas are included, but these may be especially useful for investigation the suburbs of large towns.
• The Victoria County History of Staffordshire has six volumes available through British History Online. Some Notes on British Medieval Genealogy is a website listing all the volumes of the Victoria County History of Staffordshire including those not yet online, together with the contents of each including the places covered.
• Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Archive Service announced in August 2015 that nearly all their parish registers are now online with Findmypast. Staffordshire Archives has three branches:

• Staffordshire Record Office, Eastgate Street, Stafford ST16 2LZ (phone and email contact details, opening hours, etc.)
• Stoke on Trent City Archives, City Central Library, Bethesda Street, Hanley, Stoke on Trent ST1 3RS (phone and email contact details, opening hours, etc.)
• Lichfield Record Office, The Friary, Lichfield WS13 6QG (phone and email contact details, opening hours, etc.)

• The William Salt Library is the reference library in Stafford and is adjacent to the county archive offices. They have an online catalogue of their holdings.
• GENUKI lists other large libraries in Staffordshire for Wolverhampton, Burton-upon-Trent, Dudley, Walsall, and Sandwell. The last three of these places are now in the West Midlands and may hold items of local interest which are no longer housed in Staffordshire libraries and archives. For example, The Walsall Archives Centre keeps local census records and local church records.
• The Birmingham & Midland Society for Genealogy and Heraldry includes Staffordshire in its remit. It has branches in Stoke-on-Trent, Burton-on-Trent and Wolverhampton. Publications are available through the BMSGH shop. Payments accepted by debit and credit card and by Paypal. Other family history and local history societies situated around Staffordshire are listed by GENUKI.
• The Midlands Historical Data project produces searchable facsimile copies of old local history books and directories of interest to genealogists. It specialises in the three counties of Warwickshire, Worcestershire and Staffordshire, working closely with libraries, archives and family history societies in the area. Digital images are made freely available to participating organisations to improve public access. Free search index on its web-site to all its books. In many cases payment will be required to see the extract.
• GENUKI makes a great many suggestions as to other websites with worthwhile information about Staffordshire as well as leading to a collection of 19th century descriptions of each of the ecclesiastical parishes.
• The FamilySearch Wiki provides a similar information service to GENUKI which may be more up-to-date. An index of parishes leads to notes and references for each parish. The auxiliary website English Jurisdictions can also be helpful.
• A Vision of Britain through Time has

1. organization charts of the hierarchies of parishes within hundreds, registration districts (1837 onwards) and the rural and urban districts of the 20th century. They have just announced (August 2015) a future expansion to their data including 2011 census population data and links to post-1974 county organization.
2. excerpts from a gazetteer of circa 1870 outlining individual towns and parishes
3. reviews of population through the time period 1800-1960

• Brett Langston's list of Staffordshire Registration Districts and parishes within each registration district from 1837 to the present can indicate where to find details of civil registration entries since the process began in England.
• More local sources can often be found by referring to "What Links Here" in the column on the left.