This was the family name of one of my maternal grandmothers. The spelling varies between BROWNSON, BROWNSTON and BROWNSTONE.
The family features in the parish registers of Morchard Bishop, Devon back to their start in 1660 and can be traced back therein in direct line to that date. Before then, there are a few bishop’s transcripts. There are however numerous references from other sources going back to 1332 but these are insufficient to enable a family tree to be drawn up before 1644. The name appears to derive from a locality named Brownstones (modern spelling) which is two miles from Morchard Bishop village. References to this locality have been found going back to 1330.
The direct line has been traced back to JOHN (----/1698) who married THOMASIN BOND in 1644. The line continued through THOMAS (1660/1742), JOHN (1692/1729), JOHN (1720/1756), JOHN (1747/1825), WILLIAM (1787/----) and JOHN (1808/----). This last named JOHN was the father of my great grandmother ANNA MARIA (1843/1915) who married CHARLES BURGESS at Morchard Bishop in 1863.
Some members of the family moved from Morchard Bishop to Co Durham in the 1870's and established family lines in the north of England.
I have extensive records on this family. I wrote a history of this family in 1977 and deposited a copy with The Society of Genealogists.
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