Chart 24. Pembertons of Leicestershire.

A large number of Pembertons are found settled by the 16th and 17th Centuries in Leicestershire and the adjoining portions of Derbyshire and Warwickshire, families being found at Overseale and Netherseale, Blackfordby, Hartshorn, Twycross, Loughborough, Nuneaton, and Tamworth, as well as at Whitwick, with which we are especially concerned. A Henry Pemberton, Vicar of Castle Donington, left a Will dated 1519, in which he mentions a Martin Pemberton, who is probably Martin, of Walsall (Chart 14, No. 13). A John Pemberton died at Seale in 1579, and his descendants lived there and at Blackfordby and Hartshorn for the next hundred years.

At Twycross a William Pemberton was Churchwarden in 1622, and had two sons, William baptised in 1621, and John baptised in 1625. Of John’s descendants some remained at Twycross, others moved to Bulkington, Ratcliffe Culey, and Nuneaton. The father is probably the William Pemberton who married Joan Pickard at Tamworth in 1613. His son William does not appear again at Twycross, but most probably settled in Whitwick and became the founder of the family from which “Thomas Pemberton and Sons” is derived. This is probable, but is not certain. The names in the Leicestershire families correspond very closely to those of the Sutton Coldfield and Curdworth families (Chart 21), and it is probable they had a common origin, and if Abraham of Tatenhill* is the ancestor of the Sutton Coldfield branch it is tempting to think that his son William may have been William of Twycross.†

Be this as it may, there was a William Pemberton at Whitwick whose wife Anne died there in 1694, leaving a large family. His son William and grandson Thomas were braziers, the latter moving to Leicester, where he was made a Freeman in 1755. This Thomas is undoubtedly the ancestor of the braziers, and brass-founders of Birmingham.

The Chart is compiled from Registers and Wills.

* Chart 21, No. 2.

† Chart 21, No. 6.