Heritage

Origins in England and Scotland
    Kelton Crest

Migratory Patterns

Texas Families

Scotland: Real and Imagined

Irish Diaspora

The Keltons are an ancient family of Scottish origin. There the name is pronounced with the accent on the second syllable. Many references are given to them in Scottish history. The land on which the city of Edinburgh is built, is said to belong to the Kelton heirs. Mary Kelton married John Glasselle, of the family who accompanied Mary Queen of Scots from Poietiers, on her return to her native land. The Keltons early began to emigrate to America, the first emigrant of that name reaching South Carolina between 1640 and 1645. Like many other Scots, the Keltons aided in colonizing Ireland. Some of these later came to America with the Ulster [Northern Ireland] immigration. One of these, James Kelton came from Ireland to Chester County, Pennsylvania in 1735, and was the great grandfather of John Cunningham Kelton, the soldier and author of treatises on military affairs. They came here in great numbers, for the Census of 1790 gives twenty-one heads of families of this name in Massachusetts, four in Rhode Island, one in Pennsylvania, two for North Carolina, and one for South Carolina. Dr. Claude Kelton, who served six years in the Hospital Corps of the U.S. Army, says that the old records at Washington show that the U.S. Army had Kelton recruits from nearly every state in the union. Also that the name has not been missing from the records a single year since 1776.

The Kelton crest (Scotch) is given as: Salop, a lion, passant, per pale, erm, and ermines.

This description of the origins of the Keltons was likely based on oral tradition and the early twentieth century scholarship of Richard Lee Kelton of Van Buren, Ark. It first appeared in the family history section of a magazine called The Lookout and then in Zella Armstrong's well-known 1922 multi-volume compilation, Notable Southern Families. The sources for much of his information are unknown and difficult to confirm or deny. [1]

"Kelton" is a Celtic word describing the woodlands that once covered southern Scotland. A variety of place names in that part of Scotland and northern England suggest the family may have taken its name from the places where they lived rather than the places from a person. (See a map of Scotland and England showing the region.)[2]

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See also quotes from a book about Scotland

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A village named Kelton is really no more than a collection of houses three miles south of Dumfries. Current residents are uncertain of the origin of the village's name.[4] Kelton lies next to the River Nith along the road that leads south from Dumfries to Glencaple. Some of the residents of Kelton work on the Boreland Farm -- founded in the late 1800s by Quinton Wallace -- which produces potatoes and grains.[5]

Not far south of the Scottish border in the English county of Cumbria near Ennerdale Water are a two hills named Keltonfell and Keltonfell Top. The Kelton Iron Mine, which took its name from Keltonfell Top, operated from 1868 to 1913 about six miles east of Whitehaven. The Rowrah & Kelton Fell Railway carried ore from the mine during this period.[6]

The names of members of the Kelton family appear frequently in the records in these areas of southern Scotland and northern England over the past 250 years, the years covered by most records currently available. These records have yielded listings of births, christenings and marriages in southern Scotland (Dumfries, Kirkcudbright, Torthorwald, Carlaverock and Lochmaben)[7] and in England (Carlisle,[8] Whitehaven, St. George's in the East).[9]

The Kelton family crest, which Richard L. Kelton described, appears to have been taken from Burke's General Armory, a book of family coats of arm. The book says the Kelton crest came from the English county of Salop (or Shropshire) in northwest England on the border with Wales. The largest city in Salop is Shrewsbury.[10] A record exists of an Arthur Kelton from the mid-1500s, who was the heir of Thomas Kelton of Shrewsbury, by Mary, daughter of George Ponsbury. "He applied himself to history. `But being withal very poetically given, he must forsooth write and publish his lucubrations in verse; whereby, for rhime's sake, many material matters, and the due timing of them, are omitted, and so consequently rejected by historians and antiquarians.'" He married Joan, daughter of Richard Morgan, by whom he had one son, William. Arthur was the author of Book of Poetry in Praise of Welshmen probably printed by Grafton in 1546 and A Chronicle with a Genealogie declaring that the Brittons and Welshmen are . . . dyscended from Brute published in 1547.[11]

Today 46 families with the Kelton surname live in Great Britain, with 17 of them in Carlisle. Only six live in Scotland. Other statistics include: 919 families with Kelton surnames in the United States (living in 45 states, with the largest number in Texas), 95 Kelton families in Australia, 21 Kelton families in Canada and three Kelton families in New Zealand.[12]

Migration from the British Isles

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See a discussion of the Irish diaspora by the former Irish president, Mary Robinson

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In Chester County, Pennsylvania, the small town of Kelton apparently was named for a postmaster and stationmaster named Kelton.[14] This community is located about 25 miles southwest of Philadelphia just north of New London, where the Keltons attended the New London Presbyterian Church in the 1700s. The fact that the Pennsylvania Keltons were Scotch Presbyterian is another clue to their Scottish past.[15]

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See the migratory patterns of Keltons in the United States

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Sources

[2] Samuel Lewis, Topographical Dictionary of Scotland (originally published 1851; reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc., 1989) Volume II, p. 9. Rand McNally Road Atlas of Britain (Glasgow: Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 1988), p. 64. George F. Black, The Surnames of Scotland (New York: New York Public Library, 1962), p. 391.

[3] The regional council of Dumfries and Galloway is one of nine modern administrative units established in 1974; historically the parish of Kelton had been in the county of Kirkcudbright. Angus Baxter, In Search of Your British & Irish Roots (New York: William Morrow and Company Inc., 1982), p. 233. Topographical Dictionary of Scotland, Volume II, p. 10. Dumfries, Castle Douglas & surrounding areas, Landranger 84 map (Southampton, England: Ordnance Survey, 1991).

[4] Based on a visit and discussion with villagers by the author, July 14, 1992.

[5] Based on conversations with Mrs. Boreland by the author, July 14, 1992.

[6] R.E. Hewer, The Kelton and Knockmurton Iron Mines 1852 - 1923, British Mining No. 36, A Monograph of the Northern Mine Research Society, 1988, p. 9-11, 46-47, 68-75, Carlisle Library, Carlisle, England.

[7] More than 30 christenings between 1746 and 1854 are listed for the old county of Dumfries (in Dumfries, Torthorwald, Carlaverock and Lochmaben). Eight christenings and three marriages between 1706 and 1839 are listed for the old county of Kirkcudbright. Old Parochial Registers (OPRs), Family History Center, Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, Plano, Texas, 1992.

[8] Seven Kelton children were christened in Christ Church, St. Cuthbert's, St. James' and St. Mary's churches in Carlisle between 1837 and 1875. International Genealogical Index for England, Family History Center, Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, Plano, Texas, 1991. Two families of Keltons lived in Carlisle in 1881: William (a tailor, age 40) and Margaret Kelton and children John McE., William, Arthur G. lived at 11 Queen Street, Carlisle; and Jessie Kelton (age 50) and children Sarah A., Annie, Emma F. and William J. lived at 12 Albert Street, Carlisle. Jessie listed her birthplace as Dumfries. Census of Great Britain, 1881, Carlisle Library, Carlisle, England.

[9] Between 1872 and 1882, 14 births of Keltons were registered in England from St. George in the East (a section of London), Carlisle, Wisbeach, Bethnal Green and Bedwelty. Birth Records Index, St. Catherine's House, London, England.

[10] Sir Bernard Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales (London: Harrison and Sons, 1969), p. 556. [11] Sir Leslie Stephen and Sir Sidney Lee, editors, The Dictionary of National Biography, Volume X Howard - Kenneth (London: Oxford University Press, 1963-64), p. 1247.

[12] The World Book of Keltons (Bath, Ohio: Halbert's Family Heritage, 1991), Section V.

[13] Michael C. O'Laughlin, The Complete Book for Tracing Your Irish Ancestors (Kansas City, Mo.: Irish Genealogical Foundation, 1982), map of County Down, unnumbered page.

[14] Letter from Stanton C. Kelton Jr. to Willard Kelton, August 15, 1988. The zip code for Kelton, Pennsylvania, is 19346.

[15] The town of Kelton in the panhandle of Texas, however, was named for the Kells Ranch and not for the Kelton family.