Guild of One-Name Studies
One-name studies, Genealogy
Study: Muckleston
Variants: Muccleston, Muckelston, Mucklestone
Category: 3 - A study where research using core genealogical datasets and transcriptions is well under way on a global basis.
Guild hosted website: muckleston.one-name.net
DNA website: www.familytreedna.com/public/Mackleston
Contact: Miss Janet Mackleston
The Muckleston one name study started in 1985 and we joined the Guild in 1991 by which time we had gathered a large amount of data. In 1994 we started to produce a newsletter to enable us to share updates with interested family members.
My father was the instigator of the study he wanted to prove or disprove the family rumour that our ancestors were once rich landowners in Shropshire. As the name was so rare we started to gather all references to the name on the off chance that they could be relatives, we now have extensive family trees for worldwide family members and have found many interesting characters during our research which is still ongoing.
There is a village called Muckleston in Shropshire and it is here that the name originates. Out ancestors were Lords of the Manor here. It is believed that a younger son of William Pantulf, by the name of Norman, was given lands in Muckleston which formed part of his mother Alina's dowry and he took the name of his patrimony becoming Norman de Mucclestone. His descendants remained in Muckleston until the 1400's when the lands left the family through marriage.
One of Normans descendants a Hoeskyn de Muccleston, another younger son, who was described as a burghal capitalist took lands near Oswestry called Pen y Lan and settled there, many of the Mucklestons alive today are descendants of Hoeskyns. This branch also settled in the Shrewsbury area.
We have a large branch in Bedfordshire headed by an Edward and Mary Muckleston which we have not yet managed to connect to the main Shropshire tree. Edward and Mary appeared in Streatley, Bedfordshire in the 1770's and we have not ruled out the possibility that their surname may have been Mugglestone as this name was common in the counties north of Bedfordshire and with a number of Clergy with the surname Muckleston at that time, the local priest may have thought this was their given name and entered an incorrect spelling in the registers which was perpetuated.
In 2017 a DNA project was set up and new additions to the project are always welcome. A link to the project site is www.familytreedna.com/public/Mackleston. Please feel free to contact me if you are interesting in participating.