John Bartlett was born Abt. 1450 in Stopham, Co. Essex, England314, and died 20 November 1493314. He married Olive Arthur.
Notes for John Bartlett: John Barttelot was born about 1450 in Stopham, County Sussex England. He died on 20 Nov 1493. From Charles Kyker, correspondent. Before Richard Bartlett, the name was mostly spelled "Barttelot" and is traced back to an Adam (de) Barttelot, died ca. 1100, a colleague of William the Conqueror who settled at Fearing in Sussex. Now this is all unsubstantiated. Broderbund Software, which puts out Family Tree Maker, collects user's family trees and publishes them on CD-ROMs. Users' submissions seem to be accepted pretty uncritically. The Bartlett/Barttelot line appears in several different trees. He was married to Olive Arthur.
Ref: Sprague Database
The
BARTLETT NAME.
Of names distinguished in the colonial town and state annals of our American Union, none is of more uniformly honorable record than that of Bartlett. The name frequently appears in connection with momentous events of New England's early days, the actors in which will be remembered for the greatness of their deeds, the strength of their patriotism, and for the tenacity of their adherence to principle. Some who have borne the name, while not perhaps eminent for the splendor of their public career, are properly entitled to grateful remembrance for their exemplary conduct and successful endeavor in good citizenship, and as friends of their fellow men.
Many of the immediate descendants of John Bartlett of Weymouth and Cumberland appear to have been Quakers. This society at that early period, required excessive plainness in dress and the utmost simplicity in all the affairs of life. They were opposed to war and were exempted from military duty, and the payment of taxes for war purposes, and their disapproval of office-holding and political controversy, prevented a public recognition of the worth and virtue that was so conspicuously apparent in the lives of many of its members. That so many of the Barletts--although Quakers--did accept positions of honor and trust in the administration of the government, notwithstanding the incompatibility of their religious environments, is suggestive of the esteem in which they were held by their neighbors.
It is impracticable in a work like this, circumscribed in scope and necessarily brief in details, to trace the Bartlett lineage since the date when the name first appears in colonial and plantation archives. The intention of the compiler has been, simply by patient research and labor, to preserve for the use of biographers, who, in future, may offer a fuller account of the Bartletts, an accurate transcript of existing data, gathered from numerous reliable sources. The notes from which this compilation has been made were taken, as opportunity permitted, during a period of some years, and they are placed in a form to assist any student of the Bartlett records in a comprehension of some of the interesting information collected.
The want of continuity and completeness of much of the documentary matter in the public records of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and the defective registration of the earlier vital statistics, has rendered necessary a long and patient research. All available advantage has been taken of extant writings, published histories, biographies, and genealogies, as found in various public and private libraries. Most of the information thus obtained has been corroborated by deeds and wills, found at different places and in other ways. It should not be surprising if here and there an error were discernible or suspected, and indeed the public records in many instances have not been infallible; but it is believed that the important features of this work are well established by sufficient evidence of truth, notwithstanding there should be a lapse, or mistake, caused by copying, or error in the date of a birth, or death. No attempt has been made to present a work of a biographical character, as the voluminous amount accessible would in itself make a book many times larger than this; but instead to ascertain whatever was essential as an aid in connecting the different families of the name during the first hundred years of the settlement of the Bartletts in this country; for, at the outset of the labor of compilation, there was an uncertainty in regard to the headship of families to which many persons of the name distinguished in widely different walks of life, belonged.
No small exercise of patience is required to collate facts concerning the separate families of any name, so as to illumine the history of some ancestral founder, and this is peculiarly the case touching the Bartlett families, they having been so numerous at the time of the early settlement of the country. Had there been a less number of collateral progenitors, the labor of compilation would have been less difficult. Some of the problems connected with the history of this branch of the Bartlett family, are satisfactorily settled by the facts now made known in these pages, and thus has been prepared a starting point, from which can be pursued the succession in families, and it is believed that all, who belong to this branch of the Bartletts, can without difficulty find their place upon the family tree. If this book should have the effect to promote and strengthen an interest in whatever is connected with the name of Bartlett, it will not have been uselessly printed. It has been prepared with affectionate remembrance of a loving father whose interest in kindred, unselfish devotion to his family, and adherence to principle, endeared him to his children.
All persons in this country, named Bartlett, are without doubt of Norman ancestry. There is a large estate at Stopham, Sussex, England, consisting of some thousands of acres, which has been in possession of the Bartletts for hundreds of years. From junior members of this family in former times, came the first settlers on these American shores. The Ancestral Mansion was built in 1309, and is a noble building of stone. Near it, stands the old Norman Church, built by the family in the Thirteenth century, and on the stone floor, along the aisles of the church, are marble slabs with inset figures of brass, showing a regular succession of Bartletts, from John, who died in 1428, to Colonel George Bartlett, or Barttelot, as the name was spelled in early times, who died in November, 1872, aged 84 years. Here have the Bartletts lived since the time of the Norman invasion. The first of the family was Adam Barttelot, an esquire in the retinue of Brian, a Knight, and they came into England with William, the Conqueror, and fought at Hastings. Both were granted lands. In the Fifteenth century, a castle appears as the crest of the coat of arms which was granted by Edward, the Black Prince, to John Barttelot, for taking the castle of Fontenoy, in France. In the Sixteenth century, a swan was added, and granted, by the Garter King of Arms. Since that time, the crest is double a castle, and swan. The original coat of arms of the family was three open, left-hand, falconer's gloves, with golden tassels about the wrist. The coat of arms now in use is very elaborate, representing different coats of arms of families who have inter-married with the Barttelots. The quarterings of Smith, Musgrave and Boldero, were added in 1875, when Sir Walter B. Barttelot, the present representative of the family, was created a baronet.
The family lineage with the succession from the Norman ancestor to the present time, may be found in Sir Bernard Burke's "Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage," which in England is the authoritative book of titular genealogical reference; almost every public library in this country has a copy amongst its standard works of reference.
The name is spelt in many different ways in the family record, B-a-r-t-t-e-l-o-t occuring most frequently in the older documents. At the present time--with few exceptions--the spelling is B-a-r-t-l-e-t-t. It appears that, in former times, many of the younger members of the family, who were obliged to seek their fortunes elsewhere on the accession of their elder brother to the entailed inheritance, adopted a different spelling of the name. It is quite evident that this change in spelling was not, originally, wholly the result of captrice or accident. The intention may have been that it should be designative, to denote the diminutive, or lesser, of the Barttelots. Sir Walter, like most of his predecessors who were incumbents of the ancestral estate, uses the ancient Norman orthography.
The origin of the name does not appear to be known. Its existence at such a remote period would seem to prevent any intelligent supposition as to the way it first originated. The derivation from Bartholomew, as presented by a writer on surnames, appears labored and "far-fetched," and without corroborative reference, will fail to satisfy the enquirer.
ref:: THE BARTLETTS by Thomas Edward Bartlett CS71.B377x Stafford Printing Co. New haven 1892 FTM Genealogy Library.com 11/23/98
John Bartlett (b. Abt. 1450, d. 20 November 1493)
Notes for John Bartlett: