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Welcome to the Featherstone One-Name study genealogy pages. We encourage all Featherstone descendants to join us in the quest to identify all Featherstone family members in the history of the world. No information on living individuals will be shown on our pages. Contributions to our records come from the research of leaders and contacts worldwide.
We have found or have been informed by other researchers that the name probably means feudal stone where the locals paid the lord of the manor their taxes. It probably starts spelled in the 1500's as Fetherston which is mainly when parish records began and moves though the century's to Fetherstone and then to Featherston then Featherstone, In the Doomsday book the lord of the manor of Featherstone in West Yorkshire but in both cases it was of course Fetherston was Ralph de Fetherston. We know that one of his ancestors known as John Lord of an area which included the said area, married a daughter of the Lord of Tynedale (Tyndale) and moved into Northumberland to the Tyne valley and built himself a keep or pele tower which is now part of the image you see above. He added haugh to the end of his name since the keep was on the side of the river Tyne and haugh means the side of a river valley, and so we get another name Fe(a)therston(e)haugh, which even has it variants. So we come down to what we think is his son Elias (helius) who also had a brother William. We don't have a record of his marriage, but a series of Thomas's have been linked to his descent. All found within our data. The castle today has been gentrified and is nothing like the origin which was designed for protection against border raiders. What makes it unique is the pele tower has a stone floor to prevent the occupants who lived above from being burnt out. We have plans which show the age of the various sections of the present castle put together as part of a thesis by a student.
There are not many counties in England that don't have Featherstone's in them, from the start of Parish records and the United States boasts the name from around 1637, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa also have lots of Featherstone's. Ireland we think was also a place were the Haugh's moved to around the time of the English civil war and it has yet to be proved conclusively that it was descendants of the castle family that moved. Maybe something to do with the execution of the royalist Timothy Fetherstonhaugh by the followers of Oliver Cromwell. It seems like County Durham Featherston's might be descendants of the castle, since it is so close to the castle location, although Kent and North & East Yorkshire boast really early parish records.
Numbers obtained from Forebearers web site from 2014
Surname |
England | USA | Australia | Canada | New Zealand | Ireland | Totals |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Featherstone | 5191 | 4450 | 977 | 943 | 269 | 62 | 11892 |
Featherston | 145 | 3948 | 494 | 175 | 39 |
0 | 4801 |
Fetherston | 161 | 779 | 138 | 125 | 36 | 153 | 1392 |
Featherstun |
1 | 65 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 66 |
Fetherstone | 24 | 18 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 59 |
Totals | 5522 | 9260 | 1622 |
1244 | 345 | 217 | 18210 |
There are two main researchers both called Paul Featherstone although we both have other initials that distinguish us. So the two main Tree's on site are Southern England researched by Paul R and Featherstone Main the original work of W Paul. There is some over lapping so you might find your family ancestors in both trees. Both of us are members of The Guild of One-Name Studies.
Many others have shared their research and their names can be found scattered within the sources quoted, special mention to Beryl Featherstone for her work in Yorkshire and the more famous families, and Elaine Boston for her work in the southern states of the USA and the work involved in transferring the tomes of Featherston Findings onto this site and to some extent bringing them up to date.
For those interested the image on the top right is of Packwood house now owned by the National Trust UK, but built originally by the Fetherston's who's coat of arms matched that of the castle family. You can follow the line by going to advance search and typing in the ID 22366. See Issue 60 of the Featherstone Family News which gives and explanation of how the name originates Visit the album
Site Last updated 15 April 2024