William Elston

39 WILLIAM ELSTON is the ancestor of the Southern branch of the family, covered in the Elston chapter of "Notable Southern Families," by Zella Armstrong. This chapter was apparently written by Elston Luttrell. The introductory paragraphs probably contain much truth, but it seems to the present writer that he condenses the first two known generations of Elstons in this country and part of the third into one. He says that "The first emigrants of the name coming to America were three brothers who came from Cardeganshire (Wales) to New York in about 1760. It is thought that one of the three settled in New York and spelled his name Alston instead of Elston, and from him is descended the very numerous and important family bearing that name to the present day. The third emigrant brother was named William Elston. He settled in New Jersey at or near Elizabeth and reared a family there." The writer has no information about what facts Mr. Luttrell had at his command, but in view of known errors in the above quotation, it would appear to have been tradition that condensed three generations into one. John Alston probably was brother to Peter and William, thus making three brothers who came before 1700. For a discussion of this, and showing that John Alston was not the ancestor of the southern Alston family to which Mr. Luttrell probably refers, see under John Alston (4). For a discussion of the origin of the Elston family see the Preface.

   Of course this William could have come to Elizabeth from England or Wales in 1760, but without further facts available the present writer much prefers to classify him where he may easily fit in, as a member of the family already in Elizabeth and vicinity, and particularly in a branch that had a William in nearly every family. See also under Samuel (10).

Having tentatively placed William as son of Samuel, we note that in order to have had a grandson Benjamin b. December 25, 1759, William was probably born in 1690 or even earlier. William cannot be placed anywhere else in the William branch of the family because of others of the same name, each of whose children's names we know, nor in the Peter branch because all the males in that family of the first three generations are known. Another reason for placing William (39) as son of Samuel (10) is that apparently all the Elstons that migrated to Sussex County, New Jersey and Orange County, New York were descendants of Samuel (10), this combined with the fact that Jonathan and Josiah, probably grandsons of William (39), enlisted in the Revolution from Sussex County. It is apparently not known whether this William went South with his sons and brother Jonathan. He may very well have been the William who died June 18, 1789, at Scotch Plains, New Jersey. William Elstun was administrator of the estate of David Squier, Feb. 1785, of Essex Co., and David Elstone was fellow bondsman, both of said Co. ("N.J. Arch. XXXV," 369). See also William (31) and William (90).
Children:

100 William, b. (1738). 101 David, b. (1738).

-- from The Elston Family in America, by James Strode Elston, Tuttle Publishing Co., Rutland VT (1942), pp.63-64.