PREFACE

For me, interest in the history of our family was first implanted in my thoughts by curiosity displayed by my father, who recalled - albeit somewhat sketchily - stories told by his grandmother about Waterston Manor, Dorset, and the way life was when she was a girl.

Had it not been for those memories, it may well not have been possible to make the connection between Pendomer in Somerset and Piddleton, Dorset... the real key that unlocked the door to pretty much all else!

Additionally it must be said, there have proved to be a surprising number of other Bartletts, some directly related and others less so, also engaged in this pursuit of family knowledge, and their contributions have been invaluable as well as bringing us together in most pleasing relationships so that we now correspond with one another from all parts of the world.

Furthermore, I have been able to renew inter-family relationships that had their beginnings 500 years ago or more, with descendants of Pauls, Guppys, Genges, Kellaways as well as from the Prowte family of Litton Cheney... a tremendously satisfying outcome that is, in it's own way, a kind of memorial to all that our ancestors have contributed to the presence, in to-day's world, of those descended from them.

There will be many who will consider it meaningless and of no value to know about one's family descent or history, but to a traditionalist, which I am, it can seem that each generation born is like another poem in a single anthology, each having its own theme and composition yet all bound together within a single cover and sharing the one title.

It has, for me, been a "labour of love" to put together this "History of the Bartletts of Pendomer".

Peter Bartlett

Completed at "Pendomer", Wauchope,
New South Wales, Australia,
December, 1994.