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PULESTON family, of Emral , Plas-ym-mers , Hafod-y-wern , Llwynycnotiau , Caernarvon , etc.

(1) The Pulestons derived their name from the vill or manor of Pilston or Puleston, near Newport, Salop, where they were settled in the reign of Henry III, and continued to hold land at least until 1433. Sir ROGER DE PULESTON (d. 1294) is believed to have been the first to establish himself at Emral in Maelor Saesneg; he is described as ‘de Embers-hall’ in 1283; and the following year ‘foresta domini Rogeri de Pyvylston’ occurs as a boundary in a deed of sale of lands in Gwillington (Arch. Camb., 1888, 32, 293). On 20 March 1293/4 he was appointed by Edward I the first sheriff of Anglesey (Cal. Welsh Rolls, 283), and as such was responsible for levying the odious tax of a fifteenth on moveables which precipitated the revolt led by Madog ap Llywelyn (q.v.) in the autumn of 1294. At the height of the rising the hated sheriff was seized and hanged by the Anglesey Welshmen during a sudden raid on the borough of Caernarvon. In all probability Master Richard de Puleston, who was sheriff of Caernarvonshire, 1284-95 (he was appointed on the same day as Sir Roger), was of the same family, although the pedigrees do not help to establish his exact identity. ROBERT PULESTON, son of Richard Puleston of Emral (alive 1382/3 — B. M. Harley MS. 1971), was a witness in the celebrated Scrope-Grosvenor trial of 1836, together with Owain Glyn Dŵr (q.v.), whose sister Lowry he married. For his part in the rebellion Robert's estates in the counties of Chester, Salop, and Flint were forfeited (Cal. Pat. Rolls, Henry IV, 1399-1401, 370), but were later restored. Robert's grandson, ROGER PULESTON (d. 1469), whose father, JOHN PULESTON (will proved 17 April 1444), had m. Angharad, daughter of Griffith Hanmer and grand-daughter of Tudur ap Gronwy of Anglesey, was a staunch Lancastrian and held Denbigh castle as deputy-constable to his kinsman, Jasper, earl of Pembroke during the campaign of 1460-1.

Under the Tudors, four members of the family played a leading part in the county administration of Flintshire. Sir ROGER PULESTON (d. 1545?), who in 1513 served in the campaign in France (see Cal. L. & P. Henry VIII, i, 2, 1097), was sheriff, 1540-1; his grandson, ROGER PULESTON (d. 14 Eliz. I) and the latter's son and grandson, both also named Roger, held the same office in 1567-8, 1573-4, and 1597-8 respectively. The last named, ROGER PULESTON (1566-1618), who matriculated from Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1582 at the age of 16 (Foster, Alumni, 1219) and entered the Inner Temple in 1585 (Students admitted to the Inner Temple, 1547-1660, 113), was Member of Parliament for Flintshire, 1588-9 and 1604-11, and Denbighshire, February-April, 1593. He figured prominently in the feud which raged over the 1588 election in Denbighshire — one of the stormiest the county had known — when John Edwards the younger of Chirk (see Edwards or Edwardes of Chirkland, Pembrokeshire, and Kensington) defeated William Almer (see Almer or Almor of Pant Iocyn) of Pant Iocyn. Almer alleged connivance on the part of the sheriff, Owen Brereton, and in an action which he subsequently brought in Star Chamber he charged Brereton and several of Edwards's supporters, including Puleston, with having indulged in corrupt practices at the time of the election. Roger Puleston m. Susannah, daughter of Sir George Bromley, chief justice of Chester; he was knighted 28 Aug. 1617, and d. 17 Dec. 1618. John Puleston (c. 1583-1659), judge of the Common Pleas (son of Richard Pulestonof Worthy Abbots, Hants (Reg. of Admissions to the Middle Temple, i, 86)), who inherited the Emral estate on the death without issue of his cousin George Puleston in 1634, Sir Roger's brother and heir is separately noticed. He was followed by his eldest son Roger, and the latter in turn by his heir, Sir ROGER PULESTON (1663-1697), who was Member of Parliament for Flintshire, 1689-90, and for the borough of Flint, 1695-7, thus restoring his family's parliamentary connection which, notably, had remained broken since 1611.

The male line of Emral terminated in 1732 with the death of THOMAS PULESTON, who left the estate by will to JOHN PULESTON of Pickhill, a descendant of a younger son of the Roger Puleston who lived temp. Henry VI. His son died without leaving a male heir, and Emral came to his daughter's husband, Richard Parry Price of Bryn-y-pys, who adopted the surname Puleston and was created a baronet in 1813. On the death, without issue, of Sir THEOPHILUS PULESTON in 1890 the baronetcy became extinct. It may be interesting to note that the old house at Emral was demolished in 1936, part of it (‘The Emral Hall’) being re-erected at Port Meirion, Merioneth.

(2) Before the middle of the 15th cent. a branch of the family had settled at Berse, near Wrexham, and by the end of that century Hafod-y-wern, in the same area, had come into possession of the Pulestons through the marriage of JOHN PULESTON of Plas-ym-mers, a grandson of the Robert and Lowry, previously mentioned, and Alswn, daughter and heiress of Hywel ap Ieuan ap Gruffydd of Hafod-y-wern. JOHN PULESTON (‘HEN’), of Hafod-y-wern, the eldest son of this John Puleston, fought at Bosworth, and for his services on that occasion received a grant for life from Henry VII of an annuity of twenty marks out of the tithes of the lordship of Denbigh (6th Report Royal Commission on Historical MSS., 421), and was appointed a gentleman usher of the king's chamber. In 1502 he was made deputy-lieutenant to the chief steward of Bromfield and Yale (ibid.), and seven years later, in 1509, Henry VIII granted him the receivership of the town of Ruthin and the lordship of Dyffryn Clwyd (Cal. L. & P. Henry VIII, i, 1, 67), and in 1519 that of the lordship of Denbigh and Denbighland (ibid., iii, 1, 146). Like his kinsman, Sir Roger Puleston, he served in the French campaign of 1513, as also did his two sons, both named John, the one by his first, and the other by his second marriage. JOHN PULESTON, of Hafod-y-wern (‘John Puleston of Tir Môn,’ as he is sometimes described), son of John Puleston (‘Hen’) by his second wife, Alice, daughter of Hugh Lewis of Presaddfed, was sheriff of Denbighshire, 1543-4. During the latter years of Elizabeth I, two of these Pulestons were presented for recusancy at the Denbighshire Great Sessions: EDWARD PULESTON, of Hafod-y-wern, in 1585, 1588, and 1592, and Anne, wife of JOHN PULESTON, of Berse, in 1587. The last of the Hafod-y-wern family was Frances, daughter of PHILIP PULESTON (d. 1776); she m., in 1786, Bryan Cooke, of Ouston, Yorks (see Davies-Cooke, Gwysaney).

(3) A cadet branch of the Pulestons of Hafod-y-wern flourished at Caernarvon for part of the 16th cent., its founder being the son by his first marriage (to Elin, daughter of Robert Whitney), of John Puleston (‘Hen’), Sir JOHN PULESTON (d. 1551), who was sheriff of Caernarvonshire, 1543-4, Member of Parliament for Caernarvon, 1541-4, and for Caernarvonshire, 1545-7 and 1547-51, chamberlain of North Wales, 1547, and constable of Caernarvon castle, 1523-51. He m. (1) Gaynor, daughter of Robert ap Meredydd ap Hwlcyn Llwyd of Glynllifon, and (2) Sioned, daughter of Meredydd ap Ieuan ap Robert, of Cesail Gyfarch and Gwydir. From HUGH PULESTON, his son by his second wife, who m. Margaret, daughter and heiress of Hugh Lloyd, of Llwynycnotiau, near Wrexham, were descended the Pulestons of that place. There is evidence that the Rev. EDWARDPULESTON (d. 1621/2), second son of this Hugh, who became rector of Burton Latimer, Northants, in 1592, and ultimately inherited Llwynycnotiau from his childless elder brother, was a confidant of captain John Salisbury of Rûg (see Salusbury of Rûg), one of the principal conspirators in the Essex revolt of 1601; while his younger brother, RICHARD PULESTON, had served under the captain in Ireland. On the death, without issue, March 1677/8, of Edward's grandson, JOHN PULESTON, Llwynycnotiau came into possession of his wife's brother, Simon Thelwall, of Plas-y-ward (see Thelwall of Plas-y-ward), by virtue of a settlement made in 1672.

Bibliography:

J. E. Griffith, P.A.C.F., 275;
Dwnn, ii, 150-1, 309-10, 359;
Nicholas, ii, 454-5;
List of Sheriffs;
Arch. Camb., 1888 (31-2, 285-96), 1889 (234), 1900 (287), 1949 (311);
Powys Fadog, ii, 138;
W. R. Williams, Parl. Hist., 72, 86, 88, 92;
Burke's…Peerage (1869 and 1913 ed.);
A. N. Palmer, Hist. of the Town of Wrexham, 137-42, and Country Townships of Wrexham, 207-9;
R. W. Eyton, Shropshire, viii, 95-9;
H. T. Evans, Wales and the Wars of the Roses, 116, 120, 123, 139, 140, 151, 153, 173;
E. A. Lewis, The Mediaeval Boroughs of Snowdonia, 225-6;
J. E. Lloyd, Owen Glendower, 24, 31, 34;
A. H. Dodd in E.H.R., 1944, 355-6;
J. E. Neale in E.H.R., 1931, 212-9;
Trans. Cymm., 1945, 115-16;
and other authorities cited above.

Author:

Emyr Gwynne Jones, M.A., (1911-72), Bangor