Molton family of Winterborne Whitchurch, Dorset, UK

The Molton family is a relatively new family for me in that the spelling looked to be Malton originally until one of the Knight descendants was into the Dorset Registry Office at Dorchester and found that the correct spelling was Molton. That turned out to be most helpful as he then quickly found the baptism of Elizabeth Molton 20 April 1776 at Winterborne Whitchurch. Elizabeth Molton married William Arnold at Milton Abbas 30 Aug 1793 and the priest obligingly recorded that William was of Milton Abbas and Elizabeth of Winterborne Whitchurch. Milton Abbas and Winterborne Whitchurch  are only two miles apart but the countryside in the Winterborne Valley is absolutely gorgeous. Long graceful valleys with beautiful thatched cottages dotting the landscape. The Churches majestic and many of them quite ancient. Our trip through this area was so memorable that I can still close my eyes and see the countryside much as my grandfather had described it on one of his few trips to this area. He called it the Winterborne Valley where his mother's family had lived for centuries. The story that unites the Blake family of Upper Clatford with the Knight family of Turnworth is probably a very interesting one but I never asked my grandfather and to the best of my memory I do not think he told me although he might have and it simply didn't impinge on my eight year old brain at least the memory has not emerged to date.

Elizabeth Molton baptized 20 April 1766 and the daughter of William and Sarah Molton. I have not found any further information on their marriage or other children and that is my intent with these special research times (of about 1 to 2 hours) that I have allotted on a bimonthly basis. My correspondent felt strongly that William was baptized 2 August 1743 at Winterborne Whitchurch and that Sarah was buried 13 Jan 1799 at Winterborne Whitchurch. Possibly he felt that John was the son of John and Elizabeth Molton with John being baptized 20 Jul 1714 at Winterborne Whitchurch and buried 24 Jul 1784 at Winterborne Whitchurch. Elizabeth his wife was buried 18 Jun 1781 at Winterborne Whitchurch. Possibly this John's parents were also a John and Elizabeth Molton who married in 1740 at Winterborne Whitchurch and this John was buried 29 Apr 1747 at Winterborne Whitchurch and Elizabeth was buried 14 Dec 1768 at Winterborne Whitchurch. Now to discover if I can find any records to follow through on this information and perhaps add to it. Again I will go to the OPC Dorset website http://www.opcdorset.org/WinterborneFiles/W.Whitchurch/WWhitechurch.htm

David Foster is the OPC for Winterborne Whitchurch and has put quite a bit of his information on line.

I located a number of baptisms for parents William and Sarah Molton

Thomas baptized 11 Jun 1764; buried 10 Feb 1765 at Winterborne Whitchurch
Elizabeth (as above)

Stephen baptized 12 Jan 1772 at Winterborne Whitchurch
Jane baptized 1 May 1774 at Winterborne Whitchurch
Thomas William baptized 7 Apr 1782 at Winterborne Whitchurch

Searching the IGI revealed marriages:

Stephen Molton and Hannah baptized a son William 17 Apr 1803 at Winterborne Whitchurch
William Molton married Mary Bolt 17 Oct 1802 at Winterborne Whitchurch
Jane Molton married George Cromey 21 Sep 1801 at Winterborne Whitchurch

Looking at the Molton Records at Winterborne Whitchurch:

Baptisms
Children of John and Elizabeth Molton
William Molton baptized 2 August 1743
Jane Molton baptized 2 Jun 1749
Robert Molton baptized 29 Nov 1753
John Molton baptized 18 Jan 1756

Children of John Molton
Mary Molton baptized 2 Jan 1710
Thomas Molten baptized  24 Aug 1712
John Molton baptized 20 Jul  l714; buried 24 Jul 1784
Mary Molten baptized  24 Jul 1721
Betty Molton baptized 30 Jan 1723

John Molton senior was buried 29 April 1747 (64 years) and Elizabeth (his wife) was buried 14 Dec 1768 (86 years) at Winterborne Whitchurch

John Molton was buried 24 Jul 1784 (old age) and Elizabeth (his wife) was buried 18 Jun 1781 (67 years) at Winterborne Whitchurch.

The baptisms in 1710 and 1712 state that John Molton was of Milton (Abbas?).

I do not find any entries for the Molton/Molten family in the Milton Abbas register.

Having extracted all these entries for the Molton family I tried to find out more about them and did discover a Moulton Facebook family page which claimed that the Molton family name was a derivative of this family. It does open the area for looking and I shall keep that in mind.

FindMyPast does have some of the later Molton records for Winterborne Whitchurch but not the earlier marriages. World Connect does not appear to have this particular family included in their Molton families. Ancestry has one family chart but they are located in the United States in the 1700s which doesn't work with my lines!

I need to try and find the Protestation Returns for Winterborne Whitchurch which would tell me the family was there in 1641-42 although the earliest baptisms do say that John Molton/Molten was of Milton. There is a Thomas Mollet at Milton Abbas so I would need to look at the originals and I will check and see if I captured them when we visited Salt Lake City. Otherwise, it could be on my list for next time.

I shall search some of my Dorset records to see if I can find any further information on the family and that can be for the next Molton Research Day.

I completed from 1901 to 1911 the marriages for Blake in Hampshire (adding the marriage partner to my spreadsheet). I now need to work on locating the correct partner in the 1911 Census. A project for tomorrow. I also have a couple of other Blake projects to work on tomorrow.