The Minor Family of Somerset

Origin of the Tillotson Name from http://pibburns.com/tilhist.htm

The name of TILLOTSON in my ancestry dates from about 1550 when thomas Tilston of Wookliffe,Carleton Parish, in Craven, Yorkshire, England changed the spelling of his name from Tilston to Tillotson upon moving from Huxley in Cheshire to Wookliffe. His ancestors spelled the name Tilston and, earlier, de Tilston. The name of Tilston was associated with the town of Tilston in Cheshire, England. Why Thomas Tilston changed his name to Tillotson is . Perhaps he did so because there were so many Tillotsons in Yorkshire and people there confused the name Tilston with Tillotson.

William Leslie Tillotson (1876-1920) researched the question of the origin of the Tilston name in England and France. He suggested that a knight of William the Conqueror, a Norman name Honroi de Tilliol or de Tibol, was given the estate of Tilston in Cheshire as a reward for his efforts in the wars against the Welsh. Tilston is locatedin the southWest corner of Cheshire near the Welsh border.

The name "Tilston" then possibly originated from "Tilli's Tun" where "tun" is Anglo-Saxon for a hedge, enclosure, or village. The Tillotson family crest supports the idea of a military career for the Tilston ancestors.

Other Tillotson researchers such as E. Ward Tillotson started with a later, better- attested ancestry. They relate that the manor of Tilston was given to a Norman knight named Eynion (b abt 1126), son of Richard de Tilston (b abt 1096), who thusbecame Sir Eynion de Tilston. Eynion married Beatrix de Gernons, daughter of Ranulph de Gernons, the Earl of Chester. Beatrix was sister to Hugh of Kevelioc, who succeeded his father as the Earl of Chester.

Whether Richard de Tilston was in fact related to Honroi de Tilliol is . In any case, Sir Eynion's descendants continue to live in Tilston, acting to repel incursions from Wales, which was finally subdued in 1283. Part of the Tilston family manor, where the Head of the family resided, still survives.

Another, probably independent, source of the name "Tillotson" is "Till's son" or "Tillot's son". Till was a common nickname both for William and Matilda, popular names in England after the Norman conquest. The earliest known use of the surname "Tillotson" appears in 1379 in the village of Cowling in the parish of Kildwick, embracing seven townships in South Western Yorkshire, in Airedale. The tax rolls for that year include a Tillot de Northwod together with John and William Tillotson.Since neither of tillot's sons was married at the time ofthis tax, this tax roll of 1379 may document the origin of the Tillotson surname. These Tillotsons were most likely unrelated to the Tilstons of Cheshire.

Many families bearing the name of Tillotson later lived within a few miles of Bradford in that section of Yorkshire. A character name Tillotson in a play is said to be instantly recognized as being a Yorkshireman. Other forms of the name in England include Tillerston, and Tillistan, Tilletson, Tillitson, Tietston, Tileston, and Tilliol.

Thomas Tilston alias Thomas Tillotson was the son of Richard Tilston of Shrophsire and Elizabeth Leighton. She was the second daughter of William Leighton, the second son of Sir Thomas Leighton of Wattsborough, Shropshire. Thomas Tillotson issaid to have been the great-grandfather both of John Tillotson, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and of John Tillotson, the emiGrant to Masachusetts.

The members of the Tilston family who remained in Cheshire fell on hard times during the Commonwealth period of Cromwell, from 1650 to 1658. apparently the Head of the family in Cheshire was hanged because of his desperate resistance in the cause of the Stewarts. Charles I was executed in 1649. His son Charles lived in exile abroad until he was invited back to England a few years later.