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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 (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 Puleston of 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 (‘ H EN ’) , 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. EDWARD PULESTON (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 , , 275;

, ii, 150-1, 309-10, 359;

, ii, 454-5;

;

, 1888 (31-2, 285-96), 1889 (234), 1900 (287), 1949 (311);

, ii, 138;

W. R. Williams , , 72, 86, 88, 92;

( 1869 and 1913 ed.);

A. N. Palmer , , 137-42, and , 207-9;

R. W. Eyton , , viii, 95-9;

H. T. Evans , , 116, 120, 123, 139, 140, 151, 153, 173;

E. A. Lewis , , 225-6;

J. E. Lloyd , , 24, 31, 34;

A. H. Dodd in , 1944 , 355-6;

J. E. Neale in , 1931 , 212-9;

, 1945 , 115-16;

and other authorities cited above.

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