Hi All, Thanks to one of our new subscribers, Nicholas Blackhurst, who actually lives in Cheshire, I am coming into possession of those pages of Ormerod's History of Cheshire, Vol. 1 that pertain to our family(ies). He sends them to me as a scanned TIFF document. As an experiment, I have opened the first of those pages (page 642) in PhotoShop, printed it on an 800 dpi laser printer and then scanned it into my OCR (Optical Character Recognition) program TextBridge Pro, and from there into a word processor. The results, after some work, is a verbatim copy, Latin et all, of the original page. Unfortunately, when copying and pasting it into this message below it loses all its formatting - especially the superscripts for the footnotes. So I have changed the supposed superscript a & b to a plain [a] & [b]. I may not be able to get the rest of the pages into the OCR program because they print out as legal sized pages and my scanner won't handle them. There may be some work arounds - we shall see. Much of what is on this page is not new but there is one thing new to me that I find quite significant. The families and descendants of WARBURTON, CHEDILL, and ASHLEY are really DUTTONs in disguise. At the risk of being accused of losing (or never having had) my sense of humor, it reminds me of the old saying that "A rose by any other name is still a DUTTON" - or words to that effect. For those of us that may be interested in finding all (or as many as possible) of Odard's descendants this opens a whole new world - or Pandora's box. By the way, I strongly suggest that, before any of you go to Cheshire looking for ancestors, you contact Nick. I suspect he knows where many of the "skeletons" are buried and how to "dig them up." For your edification and what it may be worth here is p.642 of Ormerod's History of Cheshire, Vol. 1. Dick Dutton ======================================================== DUTTON. (LEYCE5TER) I FIND this town of Dutton thrice named in Dooms-day-book, as held then in the Conqueror's time by three persons. One part Odard held immediately of the earl of Chester, as it were in capite : another part was held by William Fitz-Nigell, baron of Halton, of the earl, in like manner: another part did Osberne son of Tezzon, ancestor to the Boydells of Dodleston, hold also of the earl of Chester. Odard's part seems to be the greatest part, which one Ravene held before at the coming in of the Normans. The baron of Halton's part and. Osbern's part, one Edward held before, and did then likewise hold Osbern's part under the said Osbern. But both Osbern's part and the baron of Halton's part at last came to the posterity of Odard; for Osbern's part was sold by his heir sir William Boydell, who released all his seignory unto Thomas, son of Hugh Dutton of Dutton, in all the lands which the said Thomas held of him in Dutton, 15 Edw. III. 1341. Lib. C. fol. 158b.[a] As to the baron of Halton's part, John Constable of Cheshire, baron of Halton, gave to Adam de Dutton (younger son of Hugh Dutton of Dutton, and ancestor to Warburton of Arley) those four oxgangs of land in Dutton, which Walter Heron held. This was about the end of the reign of Henry the Second. Lib. C. fol. 140. And sir Geffrey de Warburton releaseth all his right unto Thomas son of Hugh de Dutton aforesaid, in all those lands in Dutton which the said Thomas held by lease from the said sir Geffrey. Dated at Dutton 28 Edw. III. I354, lib. C. fol. 158, c. So that Thomas de Dutton was now invested in the whole town of Dutton entirely. This township, in the ancient record of Doomsday-book, is written Duntune. Dun, in the old Saxon lan-guage, signifies a hill, for which we now use the word down; so that Duntune signifies as much as a town upon a hill or down, now contracted to Dutton. >From this town did the ancient family of the Duttons assume their sir-name; for Odard being seated here in the Conqueror's time, his posterity were sir-named de Dutton from the place of their residence, where they have continued ever since to this present 1666, about 600 years; a family of great worth and antiquity, and as it were almost a constant succession of knights; but now, alas ! ready to change its name, being devolved by a daughter and heir unto the lord Gerard, of Gerards Bromley in Staffordshire. Out of this family branched out the Warburtons of Arley, under Henry the Second, and retained their proper sir-name of Dutton, till Peter Dutton, seating himself at Warburton towards the end of Edward the First, his posterity under Edward the Second were stiled de Warburton, and have ever since wholly retained the sirname of Warburton. About the same time of Henry the Second branched out also Geffrey de Dutton, another son, from whom the Duttons of Chedill in this county, whose posterity afterwards assumed the sirname of Chedill under Edward the First; and out of this family of Dutton of Chedill branched out Hamon Dutton, a younger son, under Edward the First, who assumed the sir-name of Ashley from the place of his residence, whose posterity wholly retained the sir-name of Ashley, as you may see more fully in Ashley. [b] Besides the Duttons of Hatton nigh Warton in. Cheshire, more lately sprung hence, and other good families. The mannor-house of Dutton is well seated, and hath great store of meadowing by the river-side belonging to the demain, which is accounted the largest and best demain within our county, comprehending 1400 statute acres by survey. This house standeth upon a pleasant prospect to the opposite hills of the forest, and hath in it an ancient chappel, built first by sir Thomas Dutton towards the end of Henry the Thirdís reign, unto whom Roger de Lincoln, then prior of Norton, and the convent there, did grant liberam can tariam in capellis suis de Dutton et Weston infrà limites parochiarum nostrarum de Budworth et de Runcorne; id est, free liberty of reading Divine Service, or singing the same, so as the mother churches receive no detriment either in their greater or lesser tythes Lib. C. fol. 155, s. That of Weston is long since vanished; but this chappel at Dutton yet remains, and is now a domestic chappel within the mannor-house of Dutton, unto which sir Piers Dutton of Hatton, after he was adjudged next heir male to the lands of Dutton by the award of Henry the Eighth, did annex his new buildings at Dutton, anno Domini 1539, [a] Ex chartulis Duttonorum de Dutton.-P. I. [b] The Warburtons, Chedills, and Ashleys, in Cheshire, are all originally Duttons.P. I. Page 642