Weldon Family of East Berkshire (original) (raw)

The Weldon Family
of East Berkshire

The Weldons originally came from Weldon, near Longframlington, in Northumberland. Hugh Weldon was Sewer to King Henry VIII. His eldest son, also Hugh, ended up in Horsleydown at Southwark in Surrey from where his own son, Edward Weldon MP, moved north-west to Philberd's Manor at Holyport in Bray parish in Berkshire during the early 16th century. He was Surveyor of the Dresser in the Royal Kitchens. His uncle, Thomas, was already living at of Cannon Court in Cookham, and these were the founders of the two Berkshire branches of the family. The Holyport Weldons settled at Shottesbrooke House in the following generation. They lived there until the 1670s. A younger branch lived in White Waltham. The Cookham Weldons were the more prominent side of the family. The first Thomas Weldon of Cannon Court was Cofferer to King Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth I, as well as MP for Berkshire. He was a keen protestant and patron of the preacher, Anthony Pearson. This led to his imprisonment in the Fleet for "heresy against the Sacrament of the Altar". He escaped execution, but Pearson was not so lucky. He was burnt in Windsor as a heretic in 1543. Thomas' son, William, was one of the petitioners who obtained a borough charter for Maidenhead in 1582. The Weldons were still in Cookham in the 1670s. A younger branch moved to Pangbourne in the 1580s. The Weldons married into the families of Beke of Earley Whiteknights, Newbery of Waltham St. Lawrence and Avelyne of Frogmore.

The Weldons quartered their arms with those of Surcott. The family appears in the Heralds' Visitations of Berkshire for both 1623 and 1665/6. There are five Weldon wills and two administrations listed in the records of the Archdeaconry of Berkshire between 1508 and 1710. There are ten Berkshire wills listed in the records of the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. They have several memorials in Cookham Church.